Kosher wine and antidiscrimination law

[A.E. Brownstein]

I'm reminded of one of those quiz shows of a bygone age (I don't remember
which one.) But a Catholic Priest and a Rabbi were contestants, playing as
a team. The Priest answered questions about Judaism, and the Rabbi answered
questions about Christianity. As I recollect they were doing well, but had
to drop out at a certain point because the show was on Friday evening and
as sunset got earlier and earlier, it became impossible for the Rabbi to
continue to appear on the program.

                                                                                 Alan
Brownstein
                                                                                 UC
Davis


At 03:07 PM 12/18/2000 -0600, you wrote:
>I think Rick Duncan is quite wrong here.  To use his example, a person
>with a BA in Islamic Studies would be perfectly suitable to work in such
>a store; a non-Jew who reads in the field could recommend literature or
>movies in a Jewish store; I know a Christian woman who totors in Hebrew,
>and does a fine job.  None of these are issues of faith, but of
>knowledge and if we followed Duncan's position then anyone could
>discriminate against anyone else on race or religion.  It is one thing
>not to hire someone who offends customers, who is a bad employee, but
>there is no reason to think that religion, gender or race can be allowed
>to determine who is a sales clerk; it  is different if the job is part
>of the fulfillment of religious law and rules; so that a Halal meat
>store might only be able to hire a Moslem butcher, or the Catholic
>Church can only hire a Roman Catholic Priest to run the service (and not
>an Anglican Priest, no matter how good a job he or she could do).
>
>Duncan's position would lead to discrimination against lots of people,
>which is not reasonable.
>
>--
>Paul Finkelman
>Chapman Distinguished Professor
>University of Tulsa College of Law
>3120 East 4th Place
>Tulsa, Oklahoma  74104-2499
>
>918-631-3706 (office)
>918-631-2194 (fax)
>
>paul-finkelman at utulsa.edu
>
>
>
>Rick Duncan wrote:
>
> > --- MSternAJC at AOL.COM wrote:
> >
> > >  Is the problem here that we
> > > really don't believe that
> > > discrimination can ever be permissible in a
> > > commercial establishment?
> > > Marc Stern
> >
> > I continue to believe that discrimination by religious
> > commercial establishments is *often quite reasonable*
> > and often constitutionally protected (because most
> > anti-discrimination laws contain exceptions that
> > render them non-generally-applicable).
> >
> > For example, consider an Islamic book store that sells
> > Islamic books, videos, etc. I believe it is quite
> > reasonable for the owner of the bookstore to hire only
> > believers in Islam to work in the store. Since the
> > work requires employees to make recommendations about
> > good Islamic books, it is quite reasonable for the
> > owner of the bookstore and customers to expect that
> > employees be believers in Islam whose opinions about
> > Islamic books are more trustworthy. Just as it is
> > reasonable for a feminist bookstore to refuse to hire,
> > say, Archie Bunker as a sales clerk, it is also quite
> > appropriate for a religious bookstore to hire only
> > believers.
> >
> > --Rick Duncan
> >
> > =====
> > Rick Duncan (conlawprof at yahoo.com)
> >
> > __________________________________________________
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