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You can say whatever you want. You can tell a black customer when they come in that they are a dirty ni**er. But you still have to serve them the same that you'd serve anyone else, as of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Just a reminder - we've been through this hissy fit before, the one by social conservatives who demanded that their religion exempt them from following the law the rest of us have to follow (though decent folk don't decline to discriminate again gays because they have to, they do so because it's the decent and right thing to do).
Maurice Bessinger owned BBQ restaurants in South Carolina. He refused to comply with laws prohibiting commercial discrimination based on race, asserting his religious right to do so. He was sued, and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that he was compelled by law to serve customers regardless of race. When he then appealed to the USSC, the high court refused to grant cert, thereby allowing the Circuit Court ruling to become binding precedent.
Quote:
Maurice’s Piggie Park BBQ wanted to use the 1st Amendment in order to claim freedom of religion to impose the out of touch views of the owner on others. Not only content to discriminate against blacks at his own establishments, Maurice Bessinger also then used his influence against another restaurant owner who integrated his business. Oh yeah, and then he ran for office, lost and blamed intellectuals and liberals. Sound familiar?
He was avowedly pro-slavery, and distributed tracts to that effect to his customers - replete, of course, with Biblical citations to demonstrate that his beliefs and his refusal to serve blacks were religious.
Now, before the bleating that sexual orientation is not race commences, that's not the issue - the issue is whether or not government can prohibit commercial discrimination against any class of people regardless of the treasured religious beliefs of the would-be discriminators. And the answer is an obvious and resounding YES.
Oh, and for those of you peddling the "But, when a business is opened before an anti-discrimination law is passed, that business shouldn't have to follow the law!" nonsense, Mr. Bessinger opened his first whites-only restaurant in 1953, over a decade before the Civil Rights Act - which required that he not turn away customers based on race - became law. Can we please get a show of hands from people who think that he should have been allowed to continue to be anti-black in his business practices? Anyone?
But! But! But! The law violates PERCEIVED constitutional rights.
Freedom of association is only a perceived constitutional right? Oh really?
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