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Sept 26 (Reuters) - Three lawyers at Southwest Airlines have received a last-minute reprieve from a judge's order requiring them to attend a "religious-liberty training" set to be conducted on Tuesday by the conservative Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom.

The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday put on hold a sanctions order containing the training requirement that Dallas-based U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr issued in a long-running religious discrimination case.

The 5th Circuit administratively stayed Starr's order while it weighs whether to put his sanctions order on hold even longer while Southwest pursues an appeal.

Southwest in a statement said it appreciated the 5th Circuit granting the administrative stay and taking the time to fully consider its arguments in favor of longer stay. A lawyer for the plaintiff did not respond to requests for comment.

The sanctions order stemmed from a 2017 lawsuit by a former flight attendant, Charlene Carter, who accused the airline of firing her for objecting on religious grounds to her union's participation in a protest for which Planned Parenthood was a sponsor. Carter says she is a Christian who opposes abortion.

The judge awarded her $800,000 in damages and ordered Southwest to reinstate her after a jury ruled in her favor last year. Southwest is appealing those decisions.

In an Aug. 8 order, Starr, an appointee of former Republican President Donald Trump, tasked Alliance Defending Freedom with training the airline's lawyers after he determined they undermined an earlier decision he made in the case.

Starr said that instead of notifying employees of their rights against religious discrimination, as he had ordered Southwest to do, the lawyers penned a memo warning them not to violate company civility policies that led to Carter's firing.

ADF has led efforts in court to restrict the availability of the abortion pill mifepristone and helped draft the Mississippi law that was at the center of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling last year overturning the national right to abortion.

Southwest in court papers called the sanctions order "extraordinary and unprecedented" and asked the 5th Circuit to put Starr's order on hold before Tuesday's court-mandated training session could take place.

The airline argued Starr abused his civil-contempt power by imposing the religious-liberty training requirement and that forcing its lawyers to attend such training unconstitutionally would punish it for expressing its view of the verdict.

Carter's attorneys did not oppose a brief administrative stay, but they are fighting any longer pause, saying Starr's order ensures Southwest attorneys "at the root of the contempt comprehend employees' Title VII protected religious liberties."

The case is Carter v. Southwest Airlines Inc, 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 23-10008.

For Carter: Matthew Gilliam of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation

For Southwest: Shay Dvoretzky of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Paulo McKeeby of Reed Smith

Read more:

Judge rejects Southwest's 'gripe' over religious liberty training order

Judge pauses ruling ordering 'religious liberty training' for Southwest lawyers

Complaint filed over US judge's 'strange' Southwest religious liberty training order

Southwest will appeal judge's ruling requiring 'religious liberty training'

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston)

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