This conversation was recorded late last year, but due to some production snafoos and regular life getting in the way, it's only coming out now.

I swear it is still fresh and relevant. I am sorry for our absence.

Okay, today is Wednesday, December 21st at about one o'clock.

So what are we going to talk about today?

The most famous barbecue joint in constitutional law was once located in Birmingham, Alabama.

This was Ollie's Barbecue. Ollies was a family-owned restaurant and in the words of the Supreme Court one

specializing in barbecued meats and homemade pies. Now, Ollies served white customers and black customers, but like a lot of

restaurants in the South before the 1960s, Ollies would not serve its black customers

inside of the restaurant.

Instead, black customers could only order from the takeout counter.

And as Ollie McClung Jr. the owner of the barbecue, said in 2001, it was known as a white restaurant.

But when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, that kind of racially discriminatory treatment became illegal, period.

But Ollie McClung thought complying with the law would drive away his white customers, so he sued.

And in 1964, the Supreme Court ruled against Ollies.

Ollies barbecue, like every other restaurant, hotel, and other place open to the public, had to serve everyone equally.

They couldn't exclude black customers who wanted to sit down and eat inside at Ollies.

The Jim Crow laws of the South that had treated blacks and whites differently

violated federal law.

Now, let's fast forward more than 50 years later.

I think almost everyone agrees today with the policy upheld in the Ali's barbecue case.

That, you know, it's wrong for businesses to discriminate against customers

because they're black or Hispanic or Asian or any

...