‘Jews are welcome, Zionists are not’: Is a Zionist ban at a restaurant legal?
Sap Sua, a Vietnamese restaurant in Boulder, Colorado, was one of Emily Lanigan’s favorite restaurants. She even celebrated her 44th birthday there in June. So Lanigan was stunned when the restaurant posted this since-deleted message…
Assessment
A Colorado restaurant's Instagram post drawing a line between Jewish identity and Zionist identity raises a legal question that has no clean answer. Private businesses can refuse service for many reasons, but discrimination based on national origin or religion is illegal. The key issue is whether anti-Zionism functions as a proxy for antisemitism under federal or state law. Courts have not settled this, and the restaurant's distinction may test where that boundary falls.