The University of Washington College Republicans hoped to celebrate the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh by enjoying beers at a local Seattle bar, but had their plans temporarily put on hold. Schultzy’s Bar and Grill, in Seattle’s University District, asked the club to find another venue “due to the political nature” of their get-together.
“Let’s celebrate our newest Supreme Court Justice, and the failure of the lies and false claims against him!” the UWCR Facebook invite read.
But after the posting, some progressive activists complained to the bar, imploring them to cancel.
At that point, Chevy Swanson, president of the UWCR, knew it would mean trouble.
Schultzy’s Bar and Grill posted on Facebook: “Shultzy’s is a sports-themed bar & grill that welcomes everyone. We do not promote or endorse any one religious or political viewpoint. As such, due to the political nature of your planned event, we request that you find another venue to celebrate.”
In other words, they welcome everyone — except Republicans wishing to celebrate the confirmation victory. One wonders if they let Progressive activists show up to drink away their sorrows, mad Kavanaugh was confirmed, but the bar ignored several requests seeking comment.
“I thought that the left wing activists who took notice of our event had lied to the restaurant about the nature of our event,” Swanson tells the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH/Seattle. “It seemed incredibly odd to deny service for a quiet gathering of college Republicans and guests.”
Had the bar moved forward with the requests and actually denied the students service, they would have likely been in trouble. Seattle is one of the few cities that prohibits discrimination on the basis of political ideology. It’s a controversial law that wasn’t passed to protect conservatives, and some local Progressives argued it should be legal to discriminate against people who hold views counter to yours.
Swanson immediately contacted Bill Becker of Freedom X, the attorney who successfully sued UW on their behalf after the University of Washington pushed exorbitant fees on them for events, which would have ultimately silenced the group’s political activism.
“[Becker] advised us to call and explain that they can’t deny service over political leanings,” Swanson told the Jason Rantz Show. “We did and they hung up on us. …”
Becker then posted to the Schultzy’s Facebook page to warn the bar: if you deny these students service, Freedom X will sue.
With that in mind, Swanson and over a dozen UWCR members went to the bar as planned and they were then welcomed.
“We asked for a table and they served us,” Swanson said, relieved that the threat of a lawsuit allowed them to be treated like any other customer.
For Swanson and the UWCR members, this is par for the course of being a conservative in Seattle, but they vow to push back against the ideological bigotry.
“It’s shown that it’s clear that the tension against conservatives around here has hit a boiling point where even the smallest public showing of support of conservative ideas is a point of contention and that there is no reason to roll over to hostility like that,” Swanson believes.
What’s more important here is that if you’re going to force people to violate their deeply held religious beliefs to cater a wedding, for example, you sure as hell will be required to follow the exact same laws you use to go after religious folks.
Jason Rantz is the host of the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH 770 AM in Seattle/Tacoma weekday mornings from 6-9am. His podcast is available on iTunes. Subscribe to the podcast here.