Chick-Fil-A Ban From Airport May Be Unconstitutional
Jackie Reddy April 02, 2019
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has launched an investigation to ascertain if San Antonio’s city council’s bid to stop a Chick-fil-A from opening at SAT was unconstitutional. The council said it had blocked the opening due to its “anti-LGBTQ behavior.” The matter has been raised to Elaine Chao.
An investigation is underway in Texas to ascertain if a move by San Antonio’s city council to prevent the opening of a Chick-fil-A at the city’s airport was in violation of the Constitution, reports HuffPost.
The outlet reports that the council opted to leave the franchise out of plans to encourage businesses at San Antonio International Airport (SAT). In a statement on its decision issued last month, Councilman Roberto Treviño said, “With this decision, the city council reaffirmed the work our city has done to become a champion of equality and inclusion. San Antonio is a city full of compassion, and we do not have room in our public facilities for a business with a legacy of anti-LGBTQ behavior.”
He added, “Everyone has a place here, and everyone should feel welcome when they walk through our airport.”
Back in 2012, Chick-fil-A’s CEO Dan T. Cathy gave an interview to the Baptist Press which offered firm support of family and marriage in the traditional sense. Cathy’s comments were seen as homophobic and HuffPost also observes that Chick-fil-A has donated in the past to charities with an anti-LGBTQ stance.
However, it appears that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is now looking into if the council’s choice to block Chick-fil-A from opening at SAT is in violation of freedom of religion.
In a letter to San Antonio’s mayor last month, Paxton wrote, “The Constitution’s protection of religious liberty is somehow even better than Chick-fil-A’s chicken. Unfortunately, I have serious concerns that both are under assault at the San Antonio airport.”
Raising the matter to U.S. Department of Transportation secretary Elaine Chao, Paxton wrote, “The city’s decision to specifically exclude Chick-fil-A from a government program based on the sincerely-held religious beliefs of its leadership raises serious constitutional questions.”
“There is no evidence indicating that Chik-fil-A has ever maintained any policy or practice of discriminating against any group of people, and the city offered no such evidence as the basis of its action,” he added.
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Navigator4309 nailed it - just have rules that all vendors must adhere to. If they choose not to adhere to those rules, that's a business decision.
In chavala's link, the Buffalo airport official makes this shocking statement: "As a state entity, the NFTA has a responsibility to avoid doing business with corporations who fund hateful and divisive groups." In reality, a state entity has a constitutional duty not to discriminate against a person or organization on the basis of any viewpoint it adopts.
And now BUF is banning them as well. I look forward to the day these hateful companies are put out of business entirely. https://www.delish.com/food-news/a27021083/buffalo-banned-chick-fil-a-location/
Enact a bylaw or regulation requiring airport vendors to be open seven days per week to ensure "passenger convenience." There, problem solved. CFA wouldn't be interested as they won't open on a Sunday. The taken approach, however, is indeed not constitutional. I don't like CFA's food and as a gay man, wouldn't support them anyway, but this "we don't tolerate intolerance as we define it" without evidence of actual harm is a slippery slope, no matter how much you agree or disagree with any one anecdote.
"Inclusion" as long as we agree with you. What about those of us that like waffle fries, or their lemonade, or the fact their chicken isn't garbage like KFC & McDonalds? I guess we can't get those at SAT. I do not approve of REI & Dicks Sporting Goods, but I'm not going to block them from doing business. I just spend my money elsewhere. Same can be said about an airport food court. And for the record, I'm gay. I don't hate CFA, but I also don't buy into this far, extreme left agenda that paints anyone who doesn't agree with them as "extreme".