I understand that restaurants need not follow the government mandated mask policy for their private place. But here a patron is willing or has opted to wear a mask. Can a restaurant deny service for wearing masks?
Here is the link to the story, which quotes an employee at the bar:
“Our manager sent me over because I’m nicer than he is. And yes, this is political.”
This can be extended for wearing religious garbs to not allow some patrons.
Yes as wearing (or not wearing) a mask is not a protected trait so there is nothing protecting a patron from being removed. While you make reference to religious garb a mask is not religious garb and should not be compared to that.
https://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/restaurants-right-to-refuse-service.html
While there are a few exceptions under some state laws, the answer is usually no. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 explicitly prohibits restaurants from refusing service to patrons based on race, color, religion, or national origin. In other words, restaurants do not have a constitutional right to refuse service. However, this law does not protect those from discrimination based on sexual orientation.
This means restaurants can prevent gay people from entering their restaurant and it is not against federal law. There are up to about 20 states, including New York and California, that have enacted that prohibit discrimination in public accommodations based on sexual orientation. However, it gets even more complicated when factoring in local city ordinances within states that allow certain discrimination laws.
Listed below there several legal reasons for a restaurant to refuse service, some of which include:
Patrons that act in a certain way that is rude or disrupting other guests
Patrons that overfill the capacity of the restaurant can lead to safety hazards
Patrons that enter the restaurant after the restaurant is closed and no longer serving food to customers
Patrons accompanied by large groups of non-customers looking to create rowdy behavior after hours
For patrons lacking adequate hygiene or cleanliness, discrimination for this purpose is acceptable because it puts the health and safety of others in the restaurant or establishment at risk
Patrons who bring their dog to your restaurant, which is a violation of local health ordinances. When this happens it is okay to tell the patron to leave because of their dog. One exception would be if the dog is a service dog and protected by the American Disabilities Act.
Patrons looking to enter a private establishment that requires a certain dress code for etiquette purposes
Under US federal law, specifically the The Civil Rights Act of 1964, a restaurant or other place of public accommodation may no refuse service because of sex, race, national origin, or religion. Relatively recently, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation has been held to be sex discrimination. These are the protected classes.
Under the ADA discrimination on the basis of a disability is unlawful, and reasonable access to disabled people must generally be provided. Some states have passed anti-discrimination laws that add additional protected classes in those states.
In general, a restaurant ore other business is free to refuse service to people on grounds other than membership in a protected class. (Note that things closely associated with a protected class will generally be protected. For example, forbidding crosses or burkas will generally be treated ass discrimination by religion. Forbidding an "afro" hair style might be treated as race discrimination.)
A business could, for example, refuse to serve left-handed red-headed people. or people carrying books of poetry. This would probably be ill-advised, but legal, unless and until these are added to the list of protected classes.
The question says:
I understand that restaurants need not follow the government mandated mask policy for their private place.
Depending on just what the OP means this may be a mistake. Some mandates require a business not to admit an unmasked person (or did, I am not sure if any such are still in effect). Such a mandate, if issued with valid authority, would be binding on a restaurant.
Some states have recently passed laws forbidding businesses from requiring masks. I believe these are still under litigation, but if they hold up a restaurant would be forbidden to refuse service to an unmasked person in those states.
I do not know of any US states that have forbidden businesses to refuse service to a masked person. In the absence of any such law, it would be lawful to refuse service to a person wearing a mask, to the best of my understanding.
If a current law, regulation or order requires bushiness to enforce masking on all customers, then the issue could not really come up, because a business that is on;y willing to serve unmasked people could not operate in compliance with such a regulation.
