Case: Freyer v. Frontier Airlines, Inc.

On December 10, 2019, the ACLU of Colorado, the ACLU Women's Rights Project, and a private law firm, filed this lawsuit in the District of Colorado on behalf of four pilots employed by Frontier Airlines. The plaintiffs sued under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and Colorado state law, alleging that Frontier failed to provide accommodations related to pregnancy and breastfeeding. The Complaint challenged Frontier's allegedly discriminatory policies and practices of forcing pilots onto unpaid leave at 32 weeks of pregnancy, penalizing pregnancy-related absences, refusing to provide accommodations to pregnant and breastfeeding pilots, and prohibiting breast pumping while on duty. The plaintiffs sought declaratory and injunctive relief as well as legal and equitable remedies to redress the effects of Frontier's employment policies and practices.

The case was assigned to Judge Christine M. Arguello and Magistrate Judge S. Kato Crews. On August 10, 2020, the defendants filed a motion to dismiss. A few months later, on December 23, 2020, the plaintiffs filed a motion to amend their complaint. On January 21, 2021, the court granted the plaintiffs' motion and therefore denied the defendant's motion as moot. That same day, the plaintiffs filed their amended complaint adding additional allegations regarding one of the plaintiffs' third pregnancies and subsequent return to work. They also added additional factual allegations as well as their receipt of a notice of Right to Sue from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and from the Colorado Civil Rights Division. 

The defendants filed a motion to dismiss the amended complaint on February 4, 2021, which Judge Christine M. Arguello denied on September 30, 2021. The judge ruled that the plaintiffs sufficiently stated their disparate treatment claim by alleging that Frontier provided accommodations to pilots who were unable to fly for for reasons unrelated to pregnancy, but declined to provide accommodations to pilots who were pregnant or nursing. The judge also ruled that the plaintiffs sufficiently stated their claim that the medical leave and accommodation policies had a disparate impact on pregnant and breastfeeding employees. Finally, the judge decided that the plaintiffs sufficiently stated their state law discrimination claim, rejecting Frontier's argument that the existence of a single lactation room established "reasonable effort" to accommodate. 2021 WL 4727475.

On the same day, Judge Arguello granted the plaintiffs' motion to consolidate this case with Hodgkins v. Frontier Airlines, which involved similar allegations against Frontier, but by flight attendants as opposed to pilotd. 2021 WL 4727474. However, when the Hodgkins parties settled on April 14, 2022, the judge dismissed the Hodgkins claims and unlinked the cases.

As of April 8, 2023, the claims in Freyer were still pending and discovery was ongoing.