Refuse service without cause

[justjess]

I know that, at least in most states, bartenders have the right to refuse service to customers, generally based on intoxication or disruptive conduct.

I have become aware of a situation in a South Dakota bar where the manager has instructed all staffers not only to refuse to serve a particular person, but to refuse to allow the person into the establishment.

The person has been banned, not because of anything that took place in the bar or even near the bar, but because of something done in their personal life that affected a patron the manager if friends with.

Essentially, the person is being discriminated against for a domestic issue, that has nothing to do with the bar what-so-ever.
Does the manager of the bar have legal ground to keep the person out?

(Being a person who bartends occasionally myself, I'm very interested in knowing the law on this!)

 

[cbg]

The manager is not under any legal obligation to serve anyone he does not wish to serve.

He cannot keep people out or refuse to serve them based on their race, religion, national origin, gender, disability, pregnancy, age (over 40), or a characteristic protected by state or local law. He may legally refuse to serve them for any other reason, including personal reasons related to their domestic situation.

Before you ask for a statute, I will explain that this is true not because there is a law giving him permission to do so, but because there is no law prohibiting it.