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New York bar can legally kick out customers wearing Trump hat, judge rules

New York bar can legally kick out customers wearing Trump hat, judge rules
Posted at 11:54 PM, Apr 25, 2018
and last updated 2018-04-25 23:54:32-04

A Manhattan judge ruled on Wednesday that a bar can legally eject and not serve a customer for wearing a hat containing President Donald Trump's campaign slogan "Make America Great Again," the New York Post reported

The judge ruled that there is not a law against political discrimination. 

In January 2017, Greg Piatek was asked to leave the New York City watering hole The Happiest Hour because he was wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat. Piatek claimed that a bartender told him that they do not serve Trump supporters. 

According to the New York Post, Piatek claimed in the lawsuit that the incident “offended his sense of being American.”

Piatek's attorney argued that his client wore the hat to pay tribute to victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Piatek claimed he visited the 9/11 Memorial before going ot the bar. 

“The purpose of the hat is that he wore it because he was visiting the 9/11 Memorial,” Piatek's attorney Paul Liggieri said, according to the Post.   

Attorneys for The Happiest Hour claimed that political beliefs are not a protected class. While Liggieri claimed that honoring the 9/11 victims was part of his spiritual beliefs, Judge David Cohen ruled that the hat is not faith-based.