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September 03, 2010
A legal travesty
Ugly Coyote, originally uploaded by kitikong.
You know, being a lawyer, I often think about why I decided to go to law school. Was it to help people? To improve my community? To make loads of money? We all have different motivations, but if you are one particular attorney in New York, you are going to use your legal education to have Ladies' Night at the bar deemed unconstitutional. Apparently drink specials and free admissions to entice women to patronize bars is a grave injustice, because men do not enjoy such luxuries. And one man has had enough of this freeloading.
Unlike in Minnesota, where Ladies' Night ran afoul of that state's Human Rights Act, there is apparently no such law in the Empire State. So, my colleague in the law, Roy Den Hollander, argued the 14th Amendment, with its provisions about equal protection, applied to bars, and therefore Ladies' Night, because a bar could not operate without a state-issued liquor license. See, the 14th Amendment, which guarantees equal protection under the law (except when it doesn't), only applies to state, local and federal governments - and not private businesses. So, argues Hollander, because a bar has a state-issued license, the state is sanctioning gender discrimination when it refuses to ban Ladies' Night.
He apparently lost in his original case, and he appealed it to Second Circuit in New York. The Second Circuit gave him the ol' Heisman.
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan rejected lawyer Roy Den Hollander's bid to outlaw the specials -- in which women are let into bars and discos for free or half-price -- on the grounds they violate gender equality laws, according to a Wednesday ruling.
New York state has no control over the matter because "liquor licenses are not directly related to the pricing scheme," at an establishment's door, the court said in its ruling on Den Hollander v. Copacabana Nightclub.
The ruling did not sit well with Den Hollander, who had sued the Copacabana, China Club, Lotus and other nightclubs for their use of the practice that he said violates the 14th amendment to the US Constitution.
Under the amendment's equal protection clause, the government has a duty to protect its citizens from discrimination.
Den Hollander, a self-proclaimed anti-feminist, has argued before judges that the state of New York, which issues liquor licenses to nightclubs, is complicit in promotional practices that "invidiously discriminate against men."
"The guys are paying for girls to party. I don't think that's fair," Den Hollander told the New York Daily News after the rejection by the court of appeals.
Wah-wah-wah. In a technical sense, think ladies' nights are discriminatory. For example, anything that excludes or differentiates women is sure to be controversial and subject to a legal challenge. However, I do have to question the wisdom of attacking a Ladies' Night. Is it really that bad? After all, when a dude shows up at Ladies' Night, he isn't subsidizing women - he has to pay $5 for a beer whether a lady pays 50 cents OR $5 for her beer. It is merely a tool to get women to come to a bar and get sloppy drunk, which for a guy who is at a bar to meet women, is EXACTLY what he wants.
I, for one, have no problem with those big bad femi-nazis trampling my rights in this case. Have that $2 martini, ladies! I'm cool with it.
entry no. 1508
Posted at September 3, 2010 02:46 PM