Starr’s bizarre sanctions order, which alternated between sarcasm and outrage, also revealingly referenced the biblical story of Adam, referring to it as “historical,” along with “The Lord of the Rings”:
It’s hard to see how Southwest could have violated the notice requirement more. Take these modified historical and movie anecdotes. After God told Adam, “You must not eat from the tree [in the middle of the garden],” imagine Adam telling God, “I do not eat from the tree in the middle of the garden”— while an apple core rests at his feet. Or where Gandalf bellows, “You shall not pass,” the Balrog muses, “I do not pass,” while strolling past Gandalf on the Bridge of Khazad-dûm.
The order requires that this training be conducted by the Christian nationalist Alliance Defending Freedom. This is a theocratic legal organization working to privilege certain kinds of Christianity and fuse state and church. For example, it crafted the recent 303 Creative lawsuit in which the Supreme Court ruled this summer that a would-be website designer could discriminate against LGBTQ-plus couples, as well as the precursor Masterpiece Cakeshop case. Alliance Defending Freedom also helped to represent Mississippi in the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade. The outfit is an anti-LGBTQ hate group, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. The center describes it as:
Founded by some 30 leaders of the Christian Right, the Alliance Defending Freedom is a legal advocacy and training group that has supported the recriminalization of sexual acts between consenting LGBTQ adults in the U.S. and criminalization abroad; has defended state-sanctioned sterilization of trans people abroad; has contended that LGBTQ people are more likely to engage in pedophilia; and claims that a “homosexual agenda” will destroy Christianity and society. ADF also works to develop “religious liberty” legislation and case law that will allow the denial of goods and services to LGBTQ people on the basis of religion.
The judge’s order requires Southwest to pay for the Alliance Defending Freedom’s transportation, food, accommodation and travel expenses: