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Legally they can bump only for overbooked flights while the passenger is outside the plane.

If that is true, then those responsible for the decision to bump him should be punished accordingly. Since bumping someone from a plane in the wrong place (outside, versus inside) is a relatively small infraction, I would expect that punishment to be relatively mild. (I know many will say that bumping someone once they are on the plane is the worst and unfairest thing that can happen, there are a million and one reasons why no rational person should rely on a plane transporting them on-time, or transporting them togenther with their companions -- anyone expecting, and relying, on those things is an idiot).

However, I was always under the impression that airlines are bound by law to make room for airline personnel. If that is the case, I am not willing to cede the point that the ordinary rules of bumping apply. Either way, the one that should not happen is that future airline travelers should be punished via a huge settlement from United, to this passenger. This, of course, is exactly what will happen, in our lottery-style judicial system, egged on by a reason-free public feeding frenzy. But it shouldn't.

There is no special rules for non-air crew employees.

Under United’s contract of carriage non-air crew employees are just passengers. In this case, they were non-fare no-reservation late arriving late-booking passengers, the kind that should get bumped.

“If that is true, then those responsible for the decision to bump him should be punished accordingly.”

United’s terms of service say that for reasons of the plane being overbooked IS NOT one of the reasons given for involuntarily removing a passenger. It’s basic contract law and it’s really dumb when you violate a really one-sided contract you wrote.

The law does not mandate airlines carry, gratis, their own or any other airlines additional, non-working staff, at the expense of booked and boarded passengers on the plane. Just like overbooking, that condition is (a) what the airlines not the law merely want to do and (b) what is supposed to be accounted for BEFORE passengers are boarded.