united-states internet discrimination religion sex-discrimination
Can a Web site owner prohibit men from accessing a site for religious reasons?
<p>Is it legal for a woman who writes a religious blog to not allow men to access the site because of a belief that women should not teach men about religion?</p>

<p>That depends what is meant by &quot;<em>not allow</em>&quot;.</p>
<p>Such a blog author could certainly include a statement that the blog was intended only for female readers. That would not be enforceable. She could include a ToS provision requiring a user to agree to such a restriction.  That might be enforceable in theory, but it would be a lot of work to try to enforce, as a blog author does not normally know who her readers are.</p>
<p>Such an author could have the blog require registration and log-in, and as part of the registration process require registrants to provide evidence that they are females. That might work to keep (at least most) males from directly reading the blog.</p>
<p>If we suppose that the author had such a registration process, and someone brought suit under a federal or state anti-discrimination law, what would happen? Such laws usually only apply to &quot;<em>places of public accommodation</em>&quot;. Such laws have mostly been employed to address discrimination in hotels, restaurants, theaters, retail stores, and similar places. I am not aware of any case declaring a blog or any similar online service a &quot;<em>public accommodation</em>&quot;. Such a finding would be needed for a suit in such a case to be won by the plaintiff.</p>
<p>There are also specific laws prohibiting discrimination in employment, housing, and education. But those would not apply to this sort of case.</p>
<p>So I am inclined to doubt that any such restriction, if imposed by a blog author, would be found to violate US anti-discrimination law.</p>

<p>At least w.r.t. federal law, they can. Although there are laws against discrimination in public accommodations (Title II of the Civil Rights Act), sex is not a protected category. So we don't have to raise the question of whether a website is a &quot;public accommodation&quot;. W.r.t. a different anti-discrimination law (ADA: title III), there is some legal murk over whether a public accommodation has to be a physical location, but so far websites have not been forced to comply with other anti-discrimination laws.</p>
<p>States may have their own anti-discrimination laws, but as far as I know, no state has attempted to regulate websites. All websites are &quot;in interstate commerce&quot;, and one state cannot regulate commerce by another state, only the federal government can regulate interstate commerce.</p>
<p>Needless to say, a significant First Amendment issue would be at stake with such a law.</p>
