Businesses such as restaurants sometimes exclude children under the age of 18, for example, from their premises. Businesses generally have the right to do so unless there is a local ordinance, for example, that prohibits restaurants from excluding children.
Restaurant policies that exclude children—sometimes referred to as prohibitions or bans on children by opponents of the policies—may be motivated by the restaurant’s concerns about noise, safety, or wanting to create a quiet, intimate setting for their customers.
Opponents of restaurant policies excluding children may claim the policies are discriminatory, but federal laws such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) only prohibit discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion, national origin, or disability (protected classifications). Age is not a protected class in this context. Age is a protected class in the employment context and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) prohibits age discrimination against employees and job applicants over age 40—but that law has no bearing on a business’s right to exclude customers based on their age.
In Texas, businesses such as restaurants have the general right to exclude children under the age of 18 from their premises unless there is a specific local ordinance that prohibits such exclusion. The exclusion is typically based on the business's desire to maintain a certain atmosphere, such as a quiet and intimate setting, and is not considered discriminatory under federal laws like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which protect against discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion, national origin, or disability, but not age in the context of service. Age discrimination is addressed in the employment context by the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), which protects individuals over the age of 40 from employment discrimination, but this does not extend to the rights of customers in a business setting. Therefore, unless a Texas state statute or local ordinance specifically prohibits the exclusion of minors from a business, such policies are generally permissible.
