Luna’s Friendswood, a Mexican restaurant with six different locations in Texas, has stopped offering a 10% discount to dine-in customers who presented a current church bulletin on Sundays.
FFRF Staff Attorney Liz Cavell and constitutional consultant Sam Grover sent a letter Oct. 10 to the owner explaining why this practice is illegal. Under the federal Civil Rights Act, places of public accommodation, such as restaurants and hotels, are not allowed to discriminate on such grounds as race, color, religion or national origin.
Cavell states, “It is illegal for Luna’s Friendswood to discriminate, or show favoritism on the basis of religion. Your restaurants’ restrictive promotional practices favor religious customers, and deny both customers who do not attend church as well as nonbelievers the right to ‘full and equal’ enjoyment of Luna’s Friendswood.”
On Nov. 8, Luna’s contacted FFRF stating, “As of Nov. 4, this ‘discount’ has been eliminated.”
