Orders club to let women into restaurant

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- The Louisiana Supreme Court ordered a country club to open its men-only restaurant to women, rejecting claims that members sometimes dine there in the nude.

"In the twenty-first century, it is simply archaic to cite protection of women from the sights and sounds of a locker room environment as an excuse for excluding them from the public dining area as it exists in this country club," Justice John L. Weimer wrote for the unanimous court.

Tuesday's decision upheld an appeals court ruling against Southern Trace Country Club in Shreveport. The club has three restaurants; only The Men's Grille is open Sundays.

According to the high court, the club failed to prove its claim that allowing women into the restaurant would violate men's privacy.

Weimer noted a privacy screen is often put in the hall between the restaurant and locker room so women can dine in the restaurant.

Though witnesses testified some men eat at the restaurant dressed in a towel or nothing at all, that violates the club's own dress code requiring "casual but appropriate attire" in dining areas, Weimer wrote.

The locker room itself has tables where men can eat, he added.

"When the men-only discriminatory policy is eliminated, use of the privacy screen and enforcement of the dress code ... will maintain the men's locker room environment inviolate and at the same time accommodate those members and guests of both genders who have no penchant for dining in an area with men in various stages of undress," Weimer wrote.

Julie Lafargue had sued the club and its owner, Club Corporation of America, after she and two friends went to The Men's Grille after playing a Sunday round of golf in 2000. One of her guests and three other female club members also are plaintiffs.

A lower court judge ruled the discrimination was reasonable because it was "dictated by economic reasons, and not an intent to discriminate," Weimer noted. But he said that would be like letting airlines keep men from being flight attendants because passengers are thought to prefer attractive women in the job.

"We always thought we were right," said Allison Jones, attorney for the women.

Southern Trace issued a statement saying it would comply with the court's ruling.

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What year is it? Just a minute! It is 2004! And we wonder why our courts are backed up.

i'm going to assume it was a golf club. it's really pathetic how some golf/country clubs treat women and basically anyone not christian or caucasian. they have always been misguided but even more so these days. again my naivete may be showing here but...is it true that the scots called it golf as an acronym for Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden?

Is it fair to have exclusive women only gyms? i thought we were living in the 2000's...

What if it's a monogrammed towel? Would that be more appropriate?

__________________
Though I am different from you,
We were born involved in one another.

For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.

Complete surrender should not just come at moments in which one faces overwhelming odds, but in the calm when it seems one is personally in complete control of one's life.

I certainly wouldn't object to the ladies wearing monogrammed towels .... er ...

'scuse me.