Miner, Barnhill & Galland, P.C., together with Public Citizen Litigation Group, represents Dr. Briana Hicks in a federal race discrimination lawsuit against Southwest Airlines.

The complaint alleges that, in November 2024, Dr. Hicks, a Black woman, was singled out and berated by a flight attendant during an exit-row briefing because she held her phone in her hand while he was talking, even though white passengers seated nearby were holding electronic devices and typing on laptop computers. According to the complaint, after Dr. Hicks reported the discriminatory treatment to other members of the flight crew, the flight attendant kicked her off the plane.  In addition to enduring the humiliation and indignity of race discrimination, she was placed on a later flight that arrived several hours after her originally scheduled arrival.

The lawsuit, filed in July 2025, asserts that Southwest Airlines violated federal civil rights laws by denying Dr. Hicks the same contractual rights and treatment afforded to white passengers.  Although Southwest moved to dismiss the complaint, the court denied that motion in May 2006, allowing Dr. Hicks’s claims to proceed. The case will now move forward into discovery.

The case is being handled by MBG’s Benjamin Blustein and Bernardo Lopez, along with Michael Kirkpatrick and Lauren Bateman of Public Citizen Litigation Group.