A federal judge compared a female-only entrance policy for a Washington state-based spa to a “whites-only” policy at a hearing on Monday.
Judge M. Margaret McKeown, a Clinton appointee who sits on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, drew a parallel between Olympus Spa, a Korean spa whose services are restricted to biological women, and businesses discriminating against patrons on the basis of race.
“If you have a law that says ‘White applicants only,’ this is ‘biological women entrance only.’ It seems to me they’re quite parallel there,” McKeown said before a three-member panel of the 9th Circuit. “And you can’t have ‘White people only’ come into my restaurant, and then you say, ‘Well, no, we have a religious, spiritual nature to our restaurant, and when you get there, we serve you special food.’ This seems quite…
