WJLA (Ida Domingo) Please report that Virginia McDonald posted the signature mentioned,
Due to repeated incidents of student violence, the McDonald’s location is temporarily closed for meals to people under the age of 21. This decision was made to protect staff, guests and the community.
According to the story,
To enter, customers must ring the doorbell to allow employees to enter. A spokesman for the franchise said student violence and rude behavior occur at least once a week, causing dissatisfaction among staff and clients.
“The fight is a problem, they’re pretty brave. Management is trying to intervene, and these kids are pretty violent,” said longtime customer Robert Hankersky. “They are trying to stop the violence because it’s not fair to other customers who came for sandwiches, who are hardworking people, so they had to put up with a lot of idiots.”
Despite restrictions, customers under the age of 21 can continue to use drive-thru, order via curb pickup via the mobile app and eat inside if accompanied by a chaperone.
I sympathize with the management’s concerns and the customers’ concerns cited. But my tentative idea is that this is a violation Virginia Public Accommodation Act,provide,
A. As used in this section:
“Age” means being an individual at least 18 years old.
“Public Accommodation” means any location or business that provides or holds a general public goods, services, privileges, facilities, benefits, or accommodation.B. It’s a discriminatory practice that is illegal for any person… deny it [or attempt to deny] Individuals… to separate or discriminate against such person in any or use of any accommodation, advantages, facilities, services, or privileges made available anywhere in the public accommodation, or to… any communication… will become denied on the basis of accommodation, advantages, facilities, privileges, or child-rearing of such a child-rearing, pregnancy, religion, religion, religion, religion, religion, religion, or child-rearing. or related medical condition, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marriage status status, disability, or military status.
C. The provisions in this section do not apply to private clubs, religious companies, associations, or places of accommodation owned or operated on behalf of society, or other facilities that are not actually open to the public.
D. The provisions in this section must not prohibit (i) discrimination against individuals under the age of 18, or (ii) offering special benefits, incentives, discounts, or promotions through public or private programs to support those over the age of 50.
E. The provisions in this section must not supersed or interfere with state or local ordinances that prohibit persons under the age of 21 from entering public accommodation.
McDonald’s is a restaurant. “Accommodation, benefits, facilities, and ages 18 to 20” [and] Service – In other words, dining options in the restaurant – in the case of restaurants. This appears to be prohibited. Some state laws It’s been read Except for discrimination that the judge deems minor and reasonable. However, here the law explicitly allows several age categories. This advises courts reading with implicit exceptions to other age categories. And beyond that, I don’t know of cases that read these laws as implicitly allowing classification of some covered attributes as proxy for tendencies to engage in bad behavior. The overall point of these laws is that rather than allowing the use of such proxy, it requires individual decisions about precisely bad behavior.
Not only stores, but also certain users of all ages can be banned due to “violence and rude behavior.” However, some people are violent and rude, so it is not possible to rule out everything from 18 to 20 years old.
Of course there is a plausible argument
- In general, is it a good idea to prohibit discrimination in public accommodations?
- Whether laws prohibiting discrimination in retail sales are generally a good idea (for example, Federal Lawprohibiting discrimination based on race, religion, and location of public accommodation, but not most retailers, but not restaurants).
- Whether laws prohibiting discrimination in retail sales based on age is generally a good idea (Most states Do not prohibit such discrimination Federal Law);or
- If these laws exist, what should the cutoff age be?
However, under the law, it is difficult to see how reported actions by Virginia McDonald are legal.
