Moose Lodge No. 107 v. Irvis
Moose Lodge No. 107 v. Irvis is a significant Supreme Court case decided on June 12, 1972, concerning the intersection of private discrimination and state action. The case arose when K. Leroy Irvis, an African American legislator, was denied service at Moose Lodge No. 107 in Pennsylvania due to his race, prompting legal questions about the role of state licensing in private club discrimination. The Supreme Court ruled in a 6–3 decision that the state’s issuance of a liquor license to the privately owned lodge did not constitute state action that would violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The majority opinion emphasized that the mere provision of state services to a private entity does not automatically implicate the state in the entity's discriminatory practices. Dissenting justices argued that Pennsylvania's extensive regulation of liquor licensing created a deeper involvement that constituted state action. This ruling narrowed the definition of state action and its connection to discrimination, while still allowing individuals like Irvis to pursue remedies through state antidiscrimination laws. Ultimately, this case illustrates the complexities of legal protections against discrimination in private settings, especially regarding the role of government involvement.
Moose Lodge No. 107 v. Irvis
In Moose Lodge No. 107 v. Irvis, the Supreme Court on June 12, 1972, ruled that a state did not deny the equal protection of the law when it granted a license to serve alcohol to a racially discriminatory private club.
Moose Lodge No. 107 was a private club in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, that served both food and alcohol, the latter under a license granted by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. The club was often used by members of the state legislature for lunch breaks and after-hours relaxation. A white member of the lodge brought an African American fellow legislator, K. Leroy Irvis, into the club’s dining room and bar, where the pair were refused service on the grounds of Irvis’s race.
The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution forbids state action in furtherance of racial discrimination. Since the lodge’s refusal to serve Irvis amounted to racial discrimination, the Supreme Court was asked to determine whether Pennsylvania’s granting of a liquor license constituted state action in furtherance of that discrimination.
The Court ruled in a 6–3 vote that mere state licensing of a private club on private land did not make every action of the club an action of the state. The majority noted that the impetus for discrimination did not have to originate with the state in order for there to be state action, so long as the state was involved in enforcing private discrimination in a significant way. If the lodge had been a tenant in a state-owned building and had opened its facilities to all members of the public except African Americans, the state would have been engaged in a joint venture with the club, and the club’s discrimination would have been state action. In this case, however, the building was privately owned, it rested on privately owned land, and its facilities were open not to the public in general, but to members only. The Court observed that the state provided many services, among them water, electricity, licensing, and police and fire protection. The mere provision of such services was not enough to convert every action of the beneficiary into state action.
The dissenters argued that there was state action, since the liquor regulatory scheme was pervasive, regulating “virtually every detail of the operation of the licensee’s business.” They also observed that since the quota for liquor licenses had been exceeded in Harrisburg, the state’s renewal of the Moose Lodge’s license prevented a different facility with nondiscriminatory policies from opening.
This important case limited the reach of the Fourteenth Amendment by defining state action narrowly. It remained possible for victims of discrimination to find recourse in federal and state antidiscrimination statutes. Leroy Irvis was able to do just that when he brought suit against Moose Lodge No. 107 under Pennsylvania’s public accommodations law. He eventually gained admission to the club’s facilities and was later elected speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.
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