Dr. Seuss: I believe you are mistaken. When you enter a franchise agreement, you are bound to keep all the conditions of said agreement. Especially if they are state law. No one is forcing you to enter such an agreement; ergo, there is no abridgement of rights. If you have a problem with the conditions of the agreement on religious grounds, you contest them – you CAN’T just ignore them. You can’t break laws in the name of the first amendment. There IS a legal process.
Another point: as per the ruling in Reynolds v. United States –
“Congress was deprived of all legislative power over mere opinion, but was left free to reach actions which were in violation of social duties or subversive of good order.”
Good call, because then we’d have Muslims murdering all the infidels, saying that the first amendment allows them. Where to draw the line? I don’t know. But bottom line? You can’t use the freedom to exercise religion as a get-out-of-jail-free.
NOT to mention that it has yet to be proved that separate seating on buses is an established tenet of Judaism.
That aside, I was once on a bus where the men sat on one side, and the women on the other. What would be the halachic implications of such an arrangement?