Texas Attorney General Fights Attempt to Ban Chick-fil-A From the San Antonio Airport

Texas Attorney General fights for right to eat Chick-fil-A at the airport

Here we are in 2019, where eating Chick-fil-A is apparently a constitutional right. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has launched an investigation to determine whether the city of San Antonio violated First Amendment rights when it voted to block a Chick-fil-A franchise from opening a location inside the city’s airport, the Texas Tribune reports. The city voted against the proposed airport food court location last week, after a council member raised concerns about supporting a business that’s known for donating millions to anti-LGBTQ organizations. Other council members framed the opposition as a business decision, noting that the company famously closes on Sunday for religious reasons and would therefore bring in less revenue than restaurants that open seven days a week.

“The Constitution’s protection of religious liberty is somehow even better than Chick-fil-A’s chicken,” Paxton wrote in a letter addressed to the city. “Unfortunately, I have serious concerns that both are under assault at the San Antonio airport.” The attorney general also tweeted a statement calling San Antonio’s decision “discriminatory” with an image of Chick-fil-A waffle fries on a flag unironically reading “Come and Take It.”

And in other news...

• Taco Bell is adding a $1 Loaded Nacho Taco to its value menu on April 4. The company is also testing a $1 churro doughnut at stores in Kansas City, Missouri and a Double Beef Quesarito in Charlotte, North Carolina. [NRN]
• The Massachusetts Market Basket grocery store in Wilmington isn’t buying into claims that an employee saw a Victorian-era ghost in its aisles. “As far as we know, all of our stores are ghost-free. But if there’s anything to it, she’s probably attracted to our Victorian-era prices,” the company said in a statement. [People]
• Eating lots of oysters might just be a good way to combat depression and anxiety, according to some researchers. A new field of nutritional psychiatry is investigating how diet contributes to mood and mental health disorders. [NYT]
• The EU parliament has voted to ban all single-use utensils, plastic cotton swabs, straws, and coffee stirrers in 2021 as part of an effort to curb plastic pollution. Member states will also reduce use of plastic food containers and plastic coffee lids and will require all plastic bottles be made with 25 percent recycled content by 2025. [Bloomberg via Fast Company]
• Olive Garden operator Darden announced a new, but still relatively limited animal welfare policy this week with commitments to begin purchasing chicken raised without antibiotics by 2023 and cage-free eggs. [Darden]
• Maryland is now the sixth state in the nation to approve a $15 per hour minimum wage. State Democrats managed to override a veto by the Republican Governor Larry Hogan. [Vox]
• Slicing bagels vertically is bad enough, but Trevor Noah somehow managed to think of an even worse crime against bagels. [The Daily Show]

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