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Proposed New York Legislation Would Force Chick-Fil-A To Remain Open On Sundays

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12 months ago

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A new bill introduced by the New York State Legislature known as the “Rest Stop Restaurant Act” would require that all businesses operating along the New York State Thruway be open for business every day. According to reports, the proposed law would include the national restaurant chain Chick-fil-A, widely known for its Christian business policies, such as remaining closed on the Sabbath, every Sunday.

According to ABC 7 News, the bill suggests that the business’ earnest, and well-known religious decision to remain closed on Sundays, despite the potential millions in revenue being open seven days a week could bring, is a “disservice and unnecessary inconvenience to travelers.”

“While there is nothing objectionable about a fast food restaurant closing on a particular day of the week, service areas dedicated to travelers is an inappropriate location for such a restaurant,” the bill states.

“Publicly owned service areas should use their space to maximally benefit the public. Allowing for retail space to go unused one seventh of the week or more is a disservice and unnecessary inconvenience to travelers who rely on these service areas.”

The bill, known as A08336 makes absolutely no mention of the religious character of the Chick-fil-A policy at any point. Despite the Christian-owned restaurant being a frequent target of religious discrimination from various government bodies and municipalities for years, the purely religious motivation behind the policy is never considered. Nor is the notion that excluding Chick-fil-A from operating along the State Thruway could present illegal religious discrimination ever addressed.

The proposed law could easily find itself afoul of Supreme Court rulings in recent years that have upheld religious freedom in commerce such as Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission,

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Assemblyman Tony Simone, told ABC News Albany, “You know, we get hungry when we’re traveling. We may not like our brother-in-law or sister-in-law’s cooking and wanna get a snack on Christmas Eve.” She added, “To find one of the restaurants closed on the thruway is just not in the public good.”
Ignoring the religious question Simone told reporters “the Thruways are meant to serve New York travelers first,” and called it “ridiculous” that a rest-stop restaurant would be “able to close on Sunday – one of the busiest travel days of the week.”
Chick-fil-A has made no public statement in the case, but on its company website, the motives for the Sabbath closure are made clear. “Having worked seven days a week in restaurants open 24 hours, [the chain’s founder Truett S. Cathy] saw the importance of closing on Sundays so that he and his employees could set aside one day to rest or worship if they choose, a practice we uphold today.”
Independent journalist @amuse noted, “EVIL: New York Democrats want to force
@ChickfilA to open on Sundays or close their restaurants at all New York rest stops. Why do Democrats hate Christians and Jews so much? Presumably, since @ChickfilA
restaurants at New York rest stops they must follow New York’s rules and regulations. New York wants to change the rules to force the restaurant to open on Sundays. Anyone watching how New York State is dealing with President Trump’s business and now this attack on Chick-fil-A would be a fool to open a business in New York – it is too dangerous.”


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