Discrimination Laws - Levi Bjork and Dixon Gahnz

Sly- Joining us now, Levi Bjork and Dixon Gahnz who are both with Lawton and Cates. Gentlemen, good morning.

Dixon- Good morning Sly, how are you doing?

Sly- Levi, welcome to my show. Hopefully we won’t destroy your legal career here. We will try not to. I’ve been watching the coverage of the Freedom Riders, the 50^th anniversary. This happened months after I was born. Not that the two coincide in any way. But Congressman John Lewis and many other people rode a bus, risked their own lives and were savagely beaten, busses were burned. They fought for people being able to go to a lunch counter or some other public accommodation and not be discriminated based on color, right?

Dixon- That’s correct.

Sly- That was before the Civil Rights Act of 1965 passed.

Dixon- Correct.

Sly- So this still goes on?

Dixon- It does and that’s why we’re here today. Dealing with discrimination and public accommodation and Wisconsin’s laws in respect to that and the fact that here in Dane County, we’re finding that these things still happen. We have a complaint on file representing two gentlemen that were simply trying to go have a beer at a bar and were turned away.

Sly- Based on their color?

Dixon- That’s our allegation. The bar’s response is that they have a dress code that precludes individuals from wearing plain white t-shirts. One of our clients was wearing a t-shirt that was white, but it was not an oversized, ill-fitting t-shirt. It was fitted, v-neck kind of t-shirt. And his brother was wearing a purple fitted t-shirt as well. These gentlemen were both turned away.

Sly- What establishment is this?

Dixon- The lawsuit is against JB’s Italian Grill in Sun Prairie.

Sly- Is this a fancy restaurant?

Dixon- No it’s a family restaurant that has a bar aspect to it for later in the evening. This is a situation where our gentlemen are alleging that they went to this bar and they could see other patrons, white patrons, wearing white t-shirts in the bar. Ultimately the police were called to the scene and they have also indicated that there were other patrons wearing white t-shirts in the bar.

Sly- In a case like this, Levi, do you have to show a pattern of discrimination? In other words could this place say, “That was just a bouncer using poor discretion?” Do you have to prove that there was a pattern of discrimination when you sue a company like this?

Levi- Actually, no. You can allege that there is a pattern of discrimination. And in terms of the strength of your case, it might help. But it’s an incident by incident thing.

Sly- So when you violate- this is a state law you’re defending not a federal law, this is a state law?

Dixon- Right. Wisconsin statutes have been put in place that don’t allow public places, such as restaurants, hotels, movie theatres and so on to discriminate based on sex, race, national creed, religion and things of that nature.

Sly- This is incredible. So what is the bar/restaurant’s response to this?

Dixon- Their response to this is that they have a dress code that is enforced against all individuals equally and the turning away of these two gentlemen had nothing to do with the fact that they were black. It had to do with the fact that they were in violation of the dress code.

Sly- Were there other black people in the restaurant at the time that this happened?

Dixon- At this point I’m not sure. There’s no indication one way or another.

Sly- By the way, had these gentlemen ever been in this location before? Had they ever been to this bar before?

Dixon- One of our clients had been in one time previously. The other had not. They are brothers. One of our clients lives in Sun Prairie and he was on his way home with his brother and they were just going to stop by to have a beer.

Sly- This has garnered some media attention. Has anybody tried going in there since? To test this bar.

Dixon- Not that we’re aware of.

Sly- Right. I assume that there are some things you can’t say publicly about this case.

Dixon- Right. We can only talk about the allegations that are in the complaint.

Sly- In the complaint.

Dixon- Which is a public record.

Sly- Does insurance cover a business in this type of lawsuit? Does their business insurance cover them in a situation like this?

Dixon- That’s not something, at this point, that I can comment on. What is the remedy that we’re seeking? Is that what you’re asking? One of the things that we’re looking for is injunctive relief which we’ve kind of learned a little bit about listening to your show over the last month, but it’s an order from the court saying you can’t do this. You need to follow the laws in Wisconsin.

Sly- Is this going to Judge Sumi’s court?

Dixon- I don’t believe so. But also, in this particular instance, a no trespass ban was entered against these gentlemen saying not only are you not welcome tonight, but any other time you would come in our bar you would be considered a trespasser. One of the items that we’re seeking is that, that be removed.

Sly- Did they create a scene? When the police were called, did they arrest anyone? Was anyone taken in that night?

Levi- There was no arrest. And the no trespass ban isn’t actually a citation. They didn’t get a fine or anything. It’s a piece of paper issued by the police that says per the owner’s request if you come back you will be considered a trespasser.

Dixon- But there was no disorderly conduct ticket written, no public drunkenness, nothing of that nature, or of any nature.

Sly- It’s always so difficult in these situations. Sun Prairie has made the news for the wrong reasons a couple of times over the last month or so. The mosque that wanted to go in there and suddenly they were rejected. I don’t think that this is really a statement on Sun Prairie. It just happens to be that these are a couple of high profile cases. When you go through a discovery process like this, do you interview other people that were at the bar that night to try to figure out was this willful, was this deliberate? Were they deliberately discriminating against people based on their color? How do you do a discovery process on something like this?

Dixon- One of the things we’ll do is we’ll interview employees, bouncers. We’ll also ask for whether or not there have been previous complaints. We’ll check with the ERD, we’ll check with the police department to determine whether other trespass bans have been issued. What were the calls to this bar in trying to determine things that other people have had to say? Without disclosing too much detail, we’ve had other folks come to us since we’ve filed this complaint saying that they have information that they would like to share with us.

Sly- I don’t imagine, maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t imagine the gentlemen that came to you looking for some sort of remedy to the situation have huge, deep pockets. Does Lawton and Cates do cases like this pro bono? How does that work?

Dixon- There are two things going on. One is that the statute has a fee shifting provision which means that one of the things that we can recover if we are successful from the defendant is our fee. So the hourly time that we put in. Lawton and Cates takes these cases on a percentage basis or the fee shifting meaning that we don’t get paid unless we are successful.

Sly- Most people would probably just ignore it and not go back there. This isn’t the only type of discrimination that can go on. Can you give me some examples of cases where people really should come to you and not just turn the other cheek?

Dixon- Well there is a number of situations, whether you’ve been turned down for a job because of your race, because of your religious views, or because of your arrest record in certain circumstances. Wisconsin has put a policy in place where they want people, even if they have made a mistake and has a criminal record; they ought to be able to have a job. Now that’s not to say that if you’re a thief, you get to be a bank teller. But there is nothing to stop you from being a garbage man or something that has nothing to do with your conviction. Those are some of the other types of discrimination that if you’ve been a victim of, we’ll be interested in talking to you.

Sly- Levi, how much discretion does a restaurant/bar have in enforcing a dress code? I suppose they could always say that the shirt of the white guy that was wearing a white shirt in the bar had some minor difference. How consistent do they have to be?

Levi- I think you hit on it. A restaurant or bar can have a dress code. There is no major problem with having a dress code. What is a problem is being inconsistent. There are instances, I’m sure, where there is a lot of discretion for bouncers. You don’t want somebody coming in who is severely intoxicated. Bouncers should be able to turn people away. But there are the circumstances where you can tell that they’re not enforcing the dress code consistently and you have to look at do they have a good reason for turning this person away when they let another person with a white t-shirt in? That’s the sort of thing. And there is a lot of gray area, but in some cases it can be quite clear what’s going on.

Sly- It’s interesting with the new bill that the Republicans seem ready to pass on constitutional carry. It’s my understanding that bars are not going to be a place that they are going to ban guns. I wonder if there are going to be designer laws, or dress codes for the type of gun you have. For instance a white pistol, a black pistol, long firearm, semi-automatic. It’ll be interesting to see if bars have different dress codes for guns. Just wondering. Not that there is any sarcasm or irony in any of my remarks. You keep us up to date on this case because if in fact that happened, there is no place for that, not in Dane County.

Dixon­- We will keep you up to date.

Sly- Dixon, Levi, thank you for coming out. What’s your phone number?

Dixon- 282-6200

Sly- And what’s your website?

Dixon- lawtoncates.com

Sly- Thanks for coming out.