The University of Washington College Republicans club threatened a discrimination lawsuit on Saturday after a bar told them they could not host a celebration of Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation there because of its political nature.
They titled the event at Shultzy’s bar “Beers 4 Brett,” and the description of the event was, “Let’s celebrate our newest Supreme Court Justice, and the failure of the lies and false claims against him!”
Many people on the left saw the event page — and posted threats on social media — while others called the bar, according to Armen Tooloee, a member of the club, who spoke to The Daily Caller on Monday.
On Saturday, the day of the event, the bar contacted the group and asked them not to come, talk radio host Jason Rantz wrote.
“Shultzy’s is a sports-themed bar & grill that welcomes everyone,” the bar wrote, according to Rantz. “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.”
The UWCR, then contacted a lawyer that has worked for them in the past, Bill Becker from FreedomX. Becker told the club’s president, Chevy Swanson, to call the bar and tell them they were violating Seattle discrimination law.
“[Becker] advised us to call and explain that they can’t deny service over political leanings,” Swanson told Jason Rantz. “We did and they hung up on us…”
Becker then posted on Shultzy’s Facebook page explaining that they were violating Seattle discrimination law if they refuse to serve the college Republicans after hosting any other event of a political nature. If they uniformly denied all political events then they would not be breaking the law.
“I think showing how far people on the left will go to defame someone has united the right,” Swanson said to CrossCut. “You don’t see people in the Senate giving a crap about anyone unless it’s politically viable for them. . . . They don’t care.”
They ended up going to the bar without further controversy. There were a handful of “low energy protesters,” Tooloee said.
The bar refused to comment on the story and they have since deleted their Facebook page.
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