Local News in Brief : Support for Club Bias Suit

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday passed a resolution requesting City Atty. James Hahn to file a friend-of-the-court brief with the U.S. Supreme Court supporting the constitutionality of a New York City ordinance prohibiting discrimination against women and minorities at clubs that are “not distinctly private” because business is conducted there.

Los Angeles earlier this year adopted a similar ordinance, authored by Councilwoman Joy Picus, and the Supreme Court’s ruling in the New York case is likely to determine the validity of the Los Angeles ordinance. The local ordinance has influenced such elite downtown clubs as the Jonathan and the California to decide to integrate their memberships.