Hmm; isn't this a bit overwrought? It's hard to see how this
is racist; and of course outside race and some other grounds for
distinction, "separate but equal" is hardly always (or generally) wrong.
To say that the taxi cab driver is a "common carrier" is, I think, to
assume the conclusion: The question is whether we *should* treat the
taxi cab driver as obligated to take all comers regardless of his
preferences, or whether we should accommodate some of these preferences.
Nor does it seem to me enough to point out that there are other
accommodations we might want to reject. It seems to me we can pretty
easily allow this one, and reject the others; this is the airport
considering adopting a narrow rule, not a court mandating a broad
accommodation regime (though I should note that the Minnesota Supreme
Court has interpreted the state constitution as adopting the
Sherbert/Yoder model).
The concern about a burden on passengers such as the (rather
unlikely, I suspect) orthodox Jew who needs to transport kosher wine is
a plausible concern, but I would think the color-coding would work very
well, especially at airports. There are usually plenty of cabs there;
the orthodox Jew would be able to find the cab that will carry his wine.
As I understand it, the religious institution exemption to Title VII
makes it possible for Orthodox Jews to produce kosher wine without the
grapes' being handled by non-Jews (a requirement for kosher wines in the
minds of some Orthodox, I believe). Why shouldn't we equally
accommodate Muslim cab drivers who don't want to carry wines, kosher or
otherwise?
Eugene
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paul Finkelman [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: Friday, September 29, 2006 10:07 AM
> To: Volokh, Eugene; religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu
> Subject: Re: FW: 75% of Minneapolis airport taxis refuse
> customers withalcohol
>
> Sounds like Plessy v. Ferguson to me. Separate but equal
> cabs. No way.
>
> How far are we willing to take this: what if they say they
> won't carry people who wear a cross a necklace with the
> Buddha (a pagan symbol for a devout Muslim); what about a
> Chistian cab driver who won't pick up someone with muslim or
> sikh garb? It seems to me that this is a civil rights
> violation on the part of a common carrier. The Taxi driver
> gets a license to carry peopel from place to place and may
> not discriminate on the basis of religion or race or anything else.
>
> How about this:
>
> Orthodox Jew gets in a cab in Minneapolis with a bottle of
> kosher wine he has brought back from a trip. It is for his
> religious observance.
> It is Friday an hour before sundown. Cab drivers refuse
> take him home
> and finally when one arrives that will, it is too late to get
> home before sundown.
>
> What if the cab driver is a member of an Aryan Identity
> church and won't take black patrons?
>
> The whole thing sounds unconstitutional and racist; common
> carriers have an obligation to accept all passengers.
> Otherwise they are not common carriers.
>
> Paul Finkelman
> Albany Law School
>
> Paul Finkelman
> President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law
> and Public Policy
> Albany Law School
> 80 New Scotland Avenue
> Albany, New York 12208-3494
>
> 518-445-3386
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 09/29 12:31 PM >>>
> The color coding sounds like a pretty good accommodation to me.
>
> http://www.startribune.com/789/story/709262.html ...
>
> About three-quarters of the 900 taxi drivers at
> Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport are Somalis, many
> of them Muslim. And about three times each day, would-be
> customers are refused taxi service when a driver sees they're
> carrying alcohol.
>
> "It's become a significant customer-service issue,"
> said Patrick Hogan, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Airports
> Commission, on Thursday.
>
> Now the airports commission has a solution:
> color-coding the lights on the taxi roofs to indicate whether
> a driver will accept a booze-toting fare. The actual colors
> haven't been decided on yet, but commission officials met
> Thursday with representatives of the taxi drivers and the
> Minnesota chapter of the Muslim American Society to continue
> working on the plan.
>
> The airports commission has struggled with the issue for
> several years.
> Alcohol is a serious concern for devout Muslims, said Hassan
> Mohamud, an imam and vice president of the society. The
> Qur'an, Islam's holy book, strictly forbids buying, selling,
> drinking or carrying alcohol.
>
> The observant drivers object only to transporting openly
> displayed alcohol, said Ali Culed, a Somali Muslim who's been
> driving an airport cab for eight years. They won't search
> passengers or quiz them about what's in their bags.
>
> "It is a religious issue," Culed said. "I cannot force
> anybody to change their belief, but not in my cab. I don't
> want the guilt. I just want to be an innocent person."
>
> Hogan said taxi starters at curbside will look for duty-free
> bags with bottles or other obvious signs of alcohol and steer
> riders to cabs whose drivers don't object to booze....
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