[Butch Cassidy Slept Here]

As Jet Blue found-out, begining a justification of denied boarding with that phrase can be very expensive. See above: "A $240,000 Denied Boarding." As I've indicated in other posts, an airline's status as a common carrier does NOT allow them to "pick and choose" their customers. Walmart, on the other hand, might have such a luxury. Common carriers DO have the right to refuse transport for anyone who is “disorderly.” Being drunk is a textbook example of disorderly behavior. When one tries to argue obscenity as "disorderly behavior" you get into the matter of "local community standards." The "obscenity," in this case, would be the word "sucks." The OP only identified his point of origin as being somewhere in California. The intended destination was stated as "LI" and his airline was Southwest. Thus it can be said he was travelling to Islip, New York. If the OP's point of origin was any major city in California I think it can be safely said that, outside of church bulletins, the word "sucks," as in "Southwest Sucks," has gained enough currency in the major cities of California, and in the Islip/New York City area, that "local community standards," in this instance, have NOT been offended. Absent a solid "obscenity" ground, "uncomfortable passengers" is, by no means, a basis to scream “disorderly” within the context of common carrier case law and statutes. Nor can “uncomfortable passengers” be an excuse to cancel-out someone's First Amendment right which, based on the OP's story, is exactly what happened.