Portable Sanitation Association International

Association Insight July 27 2016

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WEEKLY EDITION July 27, 2016 Dealing with Customers You Don't Want to Serve By Karleen Kos, PSAI Executive Director Denial of service makes the news. You may have heard that a new theme park calle d "The Ark Encounter" recently opened in Kentucky. According to its website, the park is a historically themed attraction which presents a number of historical events centered on Noah's Ark as recorded in the Bible. The Ark Encounter, as sister attraction of the popular Creation Museum, is also intended to be a Christian evangelistic outreach intended to bring the Ark of Noah's day to life. On July 7, the day The Ark Encounter opened, a group of protesters from the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) a ppeared at the site. They objected to the owners of The Ark Encounter having received tax subsidies since the attraction is clearly promoting a particular religious view. To support their protest, about a week in advance FFRF contracted with a portable san itation company to provide a portable restroom for the duration of the event. According to publicly available information, the portable restroom company agreed to provide the unit, had units available, took credit card information, and agreed to deliver the unit the morning of July 7. A little after 9:00 that day the portable restroom company called the contact for delivery directions. During the course of the conversation the company representative learned that the unit was for the protesters. At that po int the portable restroom company denied service and stated they did not want their name associated with the protest. Since then, this story has been all over the news – and not in a good way. In light of this, we thought now would be a good time to review when any business can deny service to a customer. I can decide who I want to serve, right? Yes and no. In general no company – regardless of the industry - can deny service on the basis of anything that is protected by law. The 14 th Amendment to the Co nstitution guaranteed "equal protection under the law," and the 1964 Federal Civil Rights Act guaranteed all people the legal right to "full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, and accommodations of any place of public accommodation, without discrimination or segregation on the ground of race, color, religion, or national origin." Since 1964 new legislation and court cases have added to the list of specifically protected classes and now many additional groups ar e incl uded. See the information on page 6 for a complete list of protected classes. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

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