I had thought that In the US, property rights were king. As long as it’s private property, you can do what you want with it. It’s like your house. No one can force you to let everyone in the house, just because you let your friends in. You are allowed to have any friend you want, and to toss out anyone you want.
So, by extension, I thought businesses would be seen the same way. They can kick people out arbitrarily or based on prejudice or whatever.
It is interesting to see that businesses do not have complete rights over their property. If they discriminate against a protected class of people, then they can lose a lawsuit and be forced to treat that protected class the same way as other customers.
Obviously thieves and people engaged in dangerous speech can be kicked out. But surely if you want to sit and read Chaucer in a very loud voice, you can be kicked out for causing a ruckus the same as if someone was engaged in hate speech. For God’s sake, clubs routinely have doormen who grant access only to those who look right. How arbitrary can you get?
I guess I don’t understand the legal distinctions whereby refusing service to random customers is ok, but refusing service to Hispanics would not be ok. It seems to me that if it’s private property, you should be allowed to kick out anyone you want, whether or not they are in a protected class.