8/2/2019 American Humanists Letter to the Angelika Plano
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April 24, 2012
Manager
Angelika Film Center7205 Bishop Rd., Suite E6
Plano, Texas 75024
cc: [email protected]
Re: Angelika Film Centers Illegal Refusal to Accept Atheist
Advertising from the
Dallas-Fort Worth Coalition of Reason
To Whom it May Concern:
This letter is in response to the decision of the Angelika Film
Center ( the Theater) to
refuse to allow the Dallas Fort-Worth Coalition of Reason (the
Coalition or DFWCOR) tocontract with the Theater to lease pre-show
advertising1 time and space on the Theaters moviescreens. As will
be further explained below, this refusal is a violation of the
federal law that
prohibits discrimination on the basis of religious views by a
business open to the public, such asyours.
The Appignani Humanist Legal Center is a project of the American
Humanist Association(AHA), a national nonprofit organization with
over 10,000 members and 20,000 supportersacross the country,
including in Texas. In addition to defending the separation of
church and state,
the legal centers mission includes protecting the civil
liberties and legal rights to equality of
humanists and other atheists. The legal center represents the
AHA and the United Coalition ofReason. DFWCOR is a local affiliate
of the United Coalition of Reason.
As you know, the Theater solicits the public to purchase
advertising on its screens to run
before its films.2
In the first week of April 2012, the Theater agreed to contract
with the Coalitionto run its advertisement promoting a positive
view of atheist families. The Theater, upon
receiving anti-atheist complaints from members of the public
following media coverage of this
agreement, canceled the contract. I have been informed that the
Theater has previously contractedwith Christian advertisers to
display religious pre-show advertising. This pattern of facts
clearly
1 The advertisement included the text What make our families
beyond belief? Find out at DFWCOR.org.
2Under the heading ADVERTISE WITH US, the Theaters website
solicits advertisers with the following text:
The Angelika Film Centers, located in New York City and in Texas
, [including in] Plano, Texas. . . . The Angelika
offers several ways, through our theaters and our websites, to
reach our sophisticated clientele: Pre-Show On Screen
Advertising . . .
8/2/2019 American Humanists Letter to the Angelika Plano
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indicates that the Theater refused to do business with the
Coalition because of bias against its
religious views.
Title II of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 (the Act)
prohibits a businessestablishment such as the Theater from
discriminating on the basis of religious views (such as
atheism).3
Movie theaters are expressly listed among the sorts of
businesses that are places of
public accommodation subject to the Act. As a place of public
accommodation, the Theatercannot lawfully refuse to do business
with the Coalition on this discriminatory basis.
Please note that under the Act it is irrelevant whether your
decision to refuse to do businesswith the Coalition was based on
personal or organization animus to the atheist views of the
Coalition and its proposed advertising or whether it was purely
a business decision intended to
avoid controversy. Courts rulings have made clear that there is
no distinction under the Actbetween discrimination based upon
personal animosity and that claimed to be purely economic
(i.e. to avoid provoking the ire of customers who instead may
themselves be biased against
atheists); both are illegal. Seee.g. United States by Katzenbach
v. Gulf-State Theatres, Inc., 256
F. Supp. 549, 553 (1966, N.D. Miss.).
Under the Act, the Coalition may bring suit to obtain an
injunction to require you to stop
discriminating against it and to contract with it for the lease
of advertising space. If you would
like to avoid any potential litigation related to this matter,
please contact me immediately andindicate that you will reverse
your illegal decision and lease pre-show advertising space on
the
screens in your theater to the Coalition on the same terms as
offered to religious advertisers, as the
Act requires.
If I do not hear from you or your attorney within one week,
either by email to
[email protected] by phone at (202) 238-9088,
legal action may be taken with
further notice to you. I believe this matter can be resolved
amicably and without the need for legal
proceedings and hope to hear likewise from you in your
response.
Sincerely,
/s/ William J. Burgess
William J. Burgess, Esq.
Appignani Humanist Legal Center
American Humanist Association
3 42 U.S.C. 2000a(a) provides that [a]ll persons shall be
entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the goods,
services, facilities, privileges, advantages, and accommodations
of any place of public accommodation . . . without
discrimination . . . on the ground of . . . religion. 42 U.S.C.
2000a(b) defines place of public accommodation to
include any motion picture house, theater . . . or other place
of exhibition or entertainment.
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]
