Two weeks ago, Governor Cooper’s Executive Order 141 went into effect, permitting restaurants to open at a half-capacity. Shortly thereafter, following a day of intense lobbying by the NC Brewers Guild, Cooper clarified the order, permitting breweries, wineries, and distilleries to also open at partial capacity.
Bars, however, were not included in that revision.
Bar owners, who have now been closed for 78 days, aren’t having it.
Last Thursday, they announced an intention to seek a temporary restraining order to force the state to allow them to reopen under phase 2 of Cooper’s plan. But on Friday, they quietly delayed filing their lawsuit when Cooper’s office agreed to a meeting.
That meeting took place yesterday. It was “friendly but unproductive,” according to a press release from the newly formed North Carolina Bar and Tavern Association, the brainchild of Raleigh bar owner Zack Medford. So on Thursday afternoon, the lawsuit went forward.
The complaint alleges that bar owners have been “harmed, and continue to suffer harm, from Governor Cooper’s Executive Orders impacting the bar and tavern industry in the State of North Carolina”; they seek “equal treatment with commercial and non-commercial establishments that have been allowed to reopen.”
“Despite our numerous requests, the governor’s office has offered no science or data showing that having a drink in a private bar is more dangerous than having a drink in a brewery bar, distillery bar, or even a restaurant bar,” Medford said in the release.
As the state undergoes the fraught, messy process of reopening, the pandemic hasn’t gone anywhere. Today, North Carolina’s COVID-19 death count reached 1,000.
Other establishments that fall outside the perimeters of the reopening phases have pushed back, as well, including a group of gym owners who sued earlier this month, and churches that successfully sued in a bid to hold indoor services of more than 10 people.
Contact deputy arts and culture editor Sarah Edwards at [email protected].
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Why don’t these business owners grow a pair and open on their own already? Why are they letting a toothless politician boss them around??