[Kevin]

Those Civil Rights Acts only apply to state action.

In fact, I referred early on to the Katzenbach v. McClung case -- the case which said that restaurants and places of public accommodation could not discriminate based on race because to do so had too much of an effect on interstate commerce (can't remember the exact holding, but you can Google it). Anyhow, Ollie's BBQ, the defendant in that case, a restaurant in Birmingham, AL, which wanted to be whites only lost the case. Rather than opening their doors to blacks though, they simply announced that they were a private club and they only served members... who were all white. They continued to operate like that until they were later purchased by a Baptist Minister who did away with that nonsense. That was the case though which really opened up the doors to lunch counter sit-ins, which as you know were a major part of the civil rights movement in the 60's (at least they were here in OKC).

At any rate, you'd have to make the argument that perceived racial discrimination in membership selection (which can't be proved) is state action.

I don't think the interstate commerce argument would fly today. That doctrine has been in a state of contraction lately.