If Sarah Sanders had chosen to dine out closer to the office, chances are she would not have been asked to leave, as she was recently in Virginia. That's because one's political affiliation or ideology is a protected trait in the District of Columbia. But that's not so in most of the rest of the country, including at the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia, which asked the White House press secretary to eat elsewhere Friday night.
Current events – including Sanders' controversial experience and the refusal of a Colorado baker to make a cake for a same-sex wedding – raise ethical and legal issues, many of which are handled differently, state by state.
The Sanders case is unusual if one views her as in the realm of mainstream politics, but less so if one categorizes the Trump administration as extremist, according to Brian Powell, a sociology professor at Indiana University at Bloomington. "We are in an unusual period of time, where restaurants and fast-food chains have become politicized, and where you shop does speak to politics," he told CBS MoneyWatch.
Federal law prohibits establishments serving the public to deny service to someone because of their race, color, religion or nationality, and a recent Supreme Court ruling ducked the broad issue of whether religious claims shield merchants from antidiscrimination laws. Other factors in which policies are viewed as discriminatory depends on location. Louisiana, for instance, in 2016 became to first state to add police officers to those protected by its hate-crime law.
"You can deny service for lots of reasons," said Powell, pointing to the common "no shoes, no shirt, no service" dress code many establishments impose. "You can't say, I'm not going to serve a woman, or someone older, and depending on what state you're in, you can't deny based on being a sexual minority."
Still, a large number of Americans believe a private business owner should be able to deny service to anyone, period, according to research Powell has authored. Putting medical and other necessary services aside, Americans responding to surveys overwhelmingly support the notion that a photographer, for instance, can deny offering services to a same-sex couple, even if the respondents themselves support same-sex marriage.
The mindset has little to do with religion and much to do with a free-market philosophy because a majority of Americans believe a business should be allowed to operate with little government intervention. "The overriding theme was businesspeople in the U.S. have the right to deny service. And, in turn, people have the right not to fraternize those businesses," Powell said.
However, those sentiments didn't hold when it came to big corporations. The public is opposed to letting large companies run unencumbered.
Of more than 2,000 people surveyed late last year, 61 percent said a self-employed photographer could deny service to a same-sex or interracial couple, but only 31 percent said a corporation could do the same.
"The American population doesn't buy the idea that a corporation is similar to an individual business, let alone an individual," said Powell, referring to the Supreme Court's 2014 Hobby Lobby decision. That ruling said closely held corporations hold the same rights as individuals in denying workers insurance coverage for contraception because of the business owners' religious views.
The National Restaurant Association distanced itself from the controversy that Sanders' encounter at the Red Hen sparked. "We welcome all guests," a spokesperson for the industry lobbying group said in an email, "regardless of their background or political beliefs."
When it comes to the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia, and the numerous establishments across the country that happen to share its name, birds of a feather don't always want to flock together.
Restaurants bearing some version of the Red Hen name are trying to distance themselves from the decision by one business to ask Sarah Sanders to leave, which prompted the White House press secretary to tweet during the weekend that she'd been shown the door "because I work for @POTUS." That notion, which the Virginia restaurant owner did not dispute, prompted a parade of detractors and supporters to pick up their phones and type blistering Yelp reviews targeting Red Hen restaurants regardless of city, state or even country.
The Red Hen restaurant in Washington, D.C., which sits in an upscale neighborhood of the nation's capital, attempted to clarify it had no connection to the controversy involving Sanders, tweeting Saturday that she had gone to an unaffiliated Red Hen, "not to our DC-based restaurant."
More than 4,300 replied, including multiple tweets calling on the restaurant to condone Sanders and the Trump administration's actions. The Red Hen answered the threats by defining "unaffiliated" as well as an explanation that it is illegal for businesses in the District of Columbia to discriminate against people because of their political views.
One more time for the people in the back... pic.twitter.com/bVMnHWSqLb — The Red Hen (@RedHenDC) June 25, 2018
On Yelp, the backlash included one-star reviews and death threats. Conversely, one user asked if the restaurant was connected to the one that declined to serve Sanders, saying if so, they'd "stop by."
Beyond social media, the restaurant was also egged.
Another Red Hen restaurant, this one in Swedesboro, New Jersey, also faced a slew of angry calls and social media posts for refusing to serve a woman who'd never stepped through their door.
"Kindly check your facts before you erroneously defame an innocent victim on Facebook," said a post on the family-owned restaurant's Facebook page.
A manager told NJ.com that the restaurant's rating fell from "4.8 stars to three-point-something."
Separately, those trying to visit the website of the Red Hen restaurant in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, first encounter a pop-up box declaring the eatery has "absolutely no affiliation with any other Red Hen restaurant anywhere else."
The backlash also extended to a long-defunct cafe called the Red Hen in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia, where the owner of the restaurant closed for nearly a decade reported fielding a stream of complaints.
Across the border, the owners of the Olde Red Hen in Ontario, Canada, also faced the downside of mistaken identity, with one Facebook user calling the restaurant "liberal trash."
Even the Little Red Hen in Muntiniupa City, Philippines, faced moments of displaced reckoning, with one critic blasting it for refusing to serve Sanders, despite it not even being in the same country.
By Monday morning, President Trump added his two cents, criticizing the Red Hen in a tweet. Like Sanders, he did not offer a location for the restaurant he was trashing.
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Donald Trump bashed the Virginia restaurant that booted White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders by calling it “dirty.” That probably wasn’t the most credible tactic, given the startling number of health code violations amassed by his own restaurants.
The Red Hen bounced Sanders out last Friday after the owner told the press secretary that the business had to uphold standards of “honesty and compassion.”
A retaliatory tweet from Trump on Monday commented on the restaurant’s “filthy” exterior, adding: “If a restaurant is dirty on the outside, it is dirty on the inside.”
It’s debatable that the restaurant looks at all dirty on the outside. As for the inside, health officials found absolutely no problems at the eatery in two of four inspections of the Red Hen since 2014, including this year. Last year the sole violation included storing pickles in the wrong kind of jars. Its sole “critical” violations were found four years ago: improper storage of meat and failure to mark certain prepared food with an expiration date. All violations were corrected.
The record for the president’s various restaurants is far worse. His establishments have racked up scores of violations, including for several critical issues such as fly and cockroach infestations, food stored at improper temperatures and dirty conditions. The Trump Cafe and Grill, and Trump Bar, both in Trump Tower in Manhattan, and restaurants at Mar-a-Lago in Florida and the Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point in the Bronx have all tallied several violations.
In April, inspectors dinged Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., on nine food health issues. It was written up for unsanitary food-contact surfaces, improper food holding temperatures and improper storage to prevent cross-contamination, among other problems.
In 2015, Trump Cafe and Grill was cited for nine health violations. Six were deemed critical and included dirty food-contact surfaces, dirty wiping cloths and cold food stored at an improper temperature. The following year it was cited for five violations — three critical, including roach infestation. It was cited for four critical violations last year and for three so far this year.
Trump’s restaurant at Mar-a-Lago was cited for 13 health violations last year, including for undercooked fish and hot raw meat, just days before Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had dinner there. The restaurant chalked up a combined 78 health code violations in just three years.
