WAS THE SLIGHT OF WHITE HOUSE’S SANDERS ETHICAL?

Comparison to bakery case doesn’t fly, but Red Hen’s move “terrible”

A look at the legal distinctions between Red Hen and Masterpiece Cakeshop incidents.

Some people in Colorado may look at a Virginia restaurant’s request that White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders leave the establishment Friday night because of her political ideologies and think, “Hmm. Isn’t that the same situation that happened at the Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood?”

Well, not really.

The owner of the bakery declined to bake a cake for a gay couple based on religious beliefs, which led to formal complaints to the Colorado Civil Rights Commission and a federal lawsuit. Owner Jack Phillips was taken to court because businesses can’t dis- criminate based on race, ethnicity, gender, religious beliefs or sexual orientation. (The Supreme Court ruled in Phillips’s favor, but mostly because the majority of justices didn’t like the way the complaint was handled on the state level.)

But those protections do not exist for political ideologies.

So it was perfectly legal for Stephanie Wilkinson, owner of the Red Hen in Lexington, Va., to ask Sanders to leave, legal experts said.

“They kicked her out for what she did, not who she was,” said Corey Ciocchetti, an associate professor of business ethics and legal studies in the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver.

Nathan Woodliff-Stanley, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, agreed.

“While we do not encourage denial of service to anyone in businesses open to the public, even as a form of protest, there is an important legal distinction between the discrimination that Charlie Craig and Dave Mullins experienced and what happened to Sarah Huckabee Sanders,” Woodliff-Stanley said in an e-mailed statement.

For Ciocchetti, the issue isn’t the legality but the ethics: Was giving President Donald Trump’s press secretary the boot the ethical thing to do?

“I wouldn’t call myself a fan of this ad-

ministration and I thought, ‘That’s not right,’ ” he said.

The Red Hen flap happened on the same weekend that two other administration officials — Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and White House senior adviser Stephen Miller — were heckled while eating at separate Mexican restaurants and Republican Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi was accosted by three men at a screening of a documentary about Fred Rogers, the late, genteel host of the iconic children’s TV series “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.”

Some believe that liberals are taking a necessary course by becoming more aggressive in their opposition to Trump’s policies. Others are saying that liberals’ messages of tolerance and anti-bias only apply when they’re criticizing the Trump administration.

“In a society where everyone seems to be at each other, are we doing more harm than good?” Ciocchetti said. “We’re losing our sense of community, right?”

As a professor who studies ethics in business, Ciocchetti said he would advise against denying service to another person on almost any grounds. (He still reserves the right to ask people to leave when they are disruptive and bothering other customers.)

“To me, as an ethics professor, everyone deserves dignity,” he said. “Think of courtesy as a virtue.”

Along with taking the high road, businesses minimize the risk of losing customers by wading into political fights. Few, especially small businesses, are able to withstand the blowback.

Larger companies such as Hobby Lobby, whose owners embrace evangelical beliefs in their business practices, and Chick-fil-A, whose owner once spoke against gay marriage, have survived.

But a quick peek at the Red Hen’s Yelp page shows the business may have taken a blow; it has 1.5 stars out of five in the ratings. And reviews have devolved into religious and political tirades.

“From a business standpoint, it was a terrible idea,” Ciocchetti said.

But some businesses are not afraid to wade into the muck.

Shooters Grill, a restaurant in Rifle, has made a name for itself by allowing its waitstaff to openly holster loaded guns at their waist. Customers, too, are welcome to carry firearms. Co-owner Lauren Boebert proudly declares the restaurant is all about “God, guns and great food,” and the restaurant has been celebrated by the National Rifle Association.

“Our political views are apparent,” Boebert said.

On Monday morning, the restaurant tweeted an invitation to Sanders.

“Sarah Sanders is welcome in Shooters Grill any time,” Boebert said. “I’d even welcome Nancy Pelosi and talk to her and pray with her and serve her a good meal.”

While Boebert said she has never asked anyone to leave the restaurant over political beliefs (she once suggested that a man leave after he asked her to remove a mother and her crying baby), she said some unknowing customers have left because they did not support the establishment’s gun advocacy.

Nearly 200 miles away in Boulder, where the politics are much more liberal, a restaurant owner tries to avoid the political fray.

“It’s hard enough to make it as a business, much less alienating 50 percent of the people,” said Chris Heinritz, who, with his brother, co-owns The Sink and West Flanders Brewing Company.

In 2016, The Sink, a legendary joint near the University of Colorado at Boulder, made headlines when it asked Donald Trump Jr. to relocate an event for his father’s campaign.

Management was more concerned that the large group, with media in tow, would disrupt regular business than it was with political affiliations, Heinritz said. The campaign had reserved space for 25 people without notifying the restaurant about who they were or what they were planning. Ultimately, the campaign reserved a vacant storefront in downtown Boulder and served The Sink’s pizza to about 150 people.

The restaurant, however, did open its doors to President Barack Obama, but Heinritz said Obama’s staff had made plans and let the restaurant know they wanted to visit.

After that occasion, The Sink received angry messages from people threatening to never eat there again.

“We’re in the business to serve the public,” Heinritz said. “We’re not in business to preach our views or put our values on anyone.

“The Sink is based more on irreverence than anything. To pick a side would almost be counter to our original beliefs.”