Legal or not, it was a scummy thing to do.
Airline employees are supremely arrogant.
“Legal or not, it was a scummy thing to do.”
That is the only conclusion worthy of posting on this matter. The airline may have had a legal right, but that doesn’t mean it was a good choice.
It takes a real idiot at the airline to think involuntarily removing a boarded passenger would be a good thing.
I have been boarded on planes and the speaker announces they need volunteers to deplane, happens frequently, but never have I seen a passenger tossed.