General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The Starbucks thing... [View all]BumRushDaShow
(130,961 posts)I posted the code because it defines different types of "trespass", but it has applicability primarily to "private" entities (including someone's residence). Yet you want to create a "private" institution out of a public one in order to insist on why what happened was somehow lawful. One of the parts of what I quoted that you ignored was this -
What I posted is state law defining "trespass" and it deals with certain entities. But the Public Accommodations Act handles "public" establishments - notably restaurants, bars, hotels, public swimming pools, etc., and in this case, federal law takes precedence.
The Public Accommodations Law was created EXACTLY for the type of thing that went on with Starbucks. An establishment claiming they were "private" and "privileged" and had the right to serve whoever they wanted and they created ad hoc "policies" that were unevenly applied/enforced.
A "private" facility might be a manufacturing plant that requires "visitors" to go through some procedure to enter or the person will not be permitted to enter at all. A "private" golf club might require a current member's okay to bring in a new member via some internal process and might requite a membership fee to have access the facility. But If none of these things have been obtained and the individual manages to get on the property or into the facility, then they are "trespassing" and may be asked to leave (and have the police escort them out although usually there are some kind of onsite security who would do that first).
And this is why until recently, I think it was Augusta National Golf club had been all male (until recently) and all white (until 1975). There was no law that could break that because that facility was "private".
You need to understand the difference between "public" and "private" because that is literally the crux behind what went wrong here. One of the things that "public" facilities HAVE done is to post their "rules" for patrons in the facility - e.g., "no guns", "jackets and shoes required", "Children must be accompanied by parent", etc. Otherwise they cannot ad hoc establish "policies" or "rules" and not enforce them equally.