A Portland family is suing Southwest Airlines, alleging an employee at Portland International Airport humiliated and discriminated against them last August as they tried to board a flight to New Orleans. The DeWeese family says the ordeal began after the father checked in his firearm at the ticket counter, only for a gate employee to later single them out in front of other travelers and accuse them of trying to sneak a weapon and an unpaid pet fee past airline staff.
The lawsuit, filed August 11 in Multnomah County by attorneys Greg Kafoury and Jason Kafoury, seeks $1.2 million in damages. According to court documents cited by KATU, the family's father had properly declared and checked his firearm at Portland International Airport before the family proceeded to the boarding gate. He was then notified that he needed to return to the ticket counter because of an issue with the firearm.
Gate Employee Accused of Singling Out Family
While the father stepped away to resolve the issue, the lawsuit claims Southwest employee Melissa Stallcup yelled out the DeWeese family's last name at the gate and proclaimed, according to court documents, that none of the family members could board because one of the sisters had a gun. One of the DeWeese sisters disputes that account, stating the claim that she had a gun was untrue and that her father was already handling the matter at the ticket counter.
The suit also alleges Stallcup claimed one of the daughters had not paid the required fee for her cat to travel on the plane, a claim the family disputes as untrue. Under Southwest's own published policy, small vaccinated pets are permitted in the cabin for a $125 fee each way, provided the carrier fits under the seat in front of the passenger. When the father returned to the gate, the lawsuit says he found all three girls stressed, scared and upset.
Confrontation Escalates at the Gate
The lawsuit further alleges that Stallcup told the family, “you guys” always make it about race, and told the father he “wasn't going to pop off at her.” The family says the encounter left the three girls in visible distress in front of fellow passengers at the gate. Southwest has not yet publicly responded to the specific allegations, and KATU reported it reached out to Southwest Airlines for comment on the lawsuit.
Legal Framework Behind the Claim
The lawsuit is grounded in overlapping legal protections. Oregon Revised Statutes § 659A.403, according to Justia Law, bars any place of public accommodation from discriminating against individuals or restricting full and equal access based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Separately, federal aviation law under 49 U.S.C. § 40127(a) explicitly prohibits U.S. and foreign air carriers from subjecting any passenger in air transportation to discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, or ancestry, per the Office of the Law Revision Counsel.
TSA regulations require that firearms in checked baggage be completely unloaded, locked in a hard-sided container, and formally declared to the airline during check-in, according to the Transportation Security Administration. The family's account centers on a dispute over whether that declaration process, and the resulting gate mix-up, was handled properly by Southwest staff.
Attorneys With a History of Big Verdicts
The DeWeese family's attorneys, Kafoury & McDougal, are no strangers to high-profile discrimination cases in the same courthouse. The firm won a $4.4 million jury verdict in Multnomah County Circuit Court in August 2022 after a Black customer was racially profiled and falsely accused of misconduct by a Walmart employee, as reported by the Portland Tribune. Following that verdict, attorney Jason Kafoury reported a surge in racial profiling inquiries, and his firm went on to file more than a dozen public accommodation discrimination lawsuits against major national retailers in Multnomah County, according to Willamette Week. Kafoury has also been active in Oregon political advocacy this month, backing a ballot measure to limit corporate election spending.
Part of a Broader Pattern for Southwest
This is not Southwest's only recent brush with civil rights litigation. The airline faced a July lawsuit filed in California alleging religious discrimination at an airport counter, along with a 2024-2025 federal challenge, supported by the U.S. Department of Justice, over eligibility for its ¡Lánzate! travel award program, according to Christian Newswire. Nationally, discrimination complaints against commercial airlines have been climbing; the U.S. Department of Transportation recorded 178 discrimination complaints in 2022, a 32.8% jump from the prior year.
The alleged confrontation also arrives as Southwest has been overhauling its boarding operations more broadly, ditching its decades-old open-seating system for assigned seats and updated special boarding rules earlier this year, as Hoodline has previously reported. Portland International Airport, which recently completed a $2.1 billion terminal expansion and handles more than 14 million passengers a year, remains Oregon's busiest aviation hub and the backdrop for the family's alleged ordeal.
What Comes Next
Key questions remain unresolved, including what internal airport security footage or TSA check-in logs might show, and how Southwest Airlines will formally respond to the complaint. The allegations remain unproven claims in pending civil litigation, and no court ruling has yet been issued in the case.
