It was NOT an overbooked flight - lawyer explains

[FBaggins]

5. Lawyers should know better

They review a document and just assume that they know what the words mean without a full analysis.

Non-lawyer here... but (s)he needs to read more carefully.

JetBlue never overbooks a flight... but that doesn't mean that they never find themselves having to bump passengers. When an A321 needs unexpected service and they have to replace it with an A320 because it's the only equipment available... roughly 50 ticketed passengers are going to get bumped (and yes... this can happen after the plane boards if that's when they find the problem). They have "more reserved confirmed seats than there are available".

What happens when your favorite airline discovers at the gate that one row of four seats has broken or otherwise can't be used? Once again, they have "more reserved confirmed seats than there are available."... because the number of seats "available" is not a fixed constant. Again... this can certainly happen after all of the passengers have boarded the aircraft.

If they have four "must carry" crew - then the aircraft now has four fewer "available" seats for ticketed passengers.

The issue here was never that the airline had no right to take someone off the flight once his butt hit the seat... it was the use of excessive force by law enforcement and the lack of any problem-solving skills among the staff that had to clear four seats for must-carry staff.