[Obadno]

Some Fun (Depending on how you look at it) Legal news.

Despite what your screeching family and friends on Facebook say, as they all became doctors and epidemiologists sometime back in April, States DO NOT have legal authority for this kind of lock down orders.

These types of lawsuits over COVID measures will go on for DECADES and will cost states BILLIONS. Oh man I wish I became an attorney they are going to clean up.

Decades from now we will be seeing late night commercials that say "Did you or a loved one forgo voluntary Treatment during the COVID pandemic" or "Were you are a loved one forced into bankruptcy during the COVID pandemic" my god it will never ever end.

More than 100 bar owners join lawsuit against Ducey

More than 100 bar owners have joined a lawsuit against Gov. Doug Ducey, alleging his reasoning for closing them down for most of the summer is prejudicial.

When the lawsuit was filed in July, it included some 20 different bar owners making their plea to the state Supreme Court, but in the past month dozens of others have asked to joined.

“There has been a flood of new requests to join the lawsuit after the Aug. 10 guidelines were issued, because they’re onerous on the border of impossible to achieve,” said Ilan Wurman, the attorney representing the bar owners.

The Arizona Supreme Court will decide on Aug. 25 whether to take up the case or not. If the court chooses to hear the case, Wurman, who is a professor at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, said he would ask for an oral argument in September.

Battle over license type
All of the owners in the suit hold either Arizona series 6 or series 7 liquor licenses. In late June, Ducey issued a executive order that closed all Arizona bars operating with a series 6 or 7 license. The problem with that, Wurman said, is that operating with a series 6 or 7 license doesn’t necessarily mean the establishment is a dark, crowded bar with little ventilation.

“We don’t object to reasonable health measures, but the distinction between series 6 and 7 doesn’t track any sensible public health measure,” Wurman said. “It has nothing to do with whether a business owner can or can’t meet reasonable health measures.”

In Arizona there are a number of different types of liquor licenses and Wurman argues there is no logic in singling out just series 6 and series 7 owners. For example, series 3 are microbreweries, series 11 are hotel bars, series 12 are restaurants, series 13 are wineries and series 14 are private clubs — like the Elks or The Moose Lodge. Wurman said all the public health issues that face bar owners with a series 6 or 7 licenses holders faces these types of establishments too, but they have not been forced to close.

His biggest concern is for establishments with series 12 licenses. A series 12 license requires owners to make a certain amount of profit off food sales, but they still operate a bar area and sell liquor. Wurman said the only major difference between series 6 and 7 holders is that the owners pay a larger fee so they don’t have requirements to serve a certain amount of food and so they can sell alcohol that leaves the premises. But he said many of these establishments look just like the restaurants with series 12 licenses, some even have the word “restaurant” in their name.

“The distinction between series six and seven on the one hand it’s series 12, on the other is lazy at best,” Wurman said. “At worst it’s a corrupt attempt by the governor to help his friends in the restaurant industry.”

Wurman pointed out that Ducey already relaxed rules during the pandemic to help businesses with series 12 licenses. He allowed restaurants to start selling alcohol to-go, which many restaurants have said helped their businesses stay afloat during this trying time. But Wurman alleges the move hurt series 6 and 7 licensees because customers went instead to get alcohol from restaurants.

Not happy with reopening policy
Bar owners are not the only businesses that have taken Ducey to court over his order to close certain businesses to slow the spread of Covid-19. Numerous gym owners have and the Arizona Capitol Times reported on Aug. 18 that a Mesa water park operator is suing the governor in federal court.

Because of a court ruling in one of the gym cases, the Ducey administration and the Arizona Department of Health Services announced the state’s plan for bars, gyms and movie theaters to reopen. When counties hit certain benchmarks with a number of Covid-19 related metrics these businesses can start a phased opening process. But bars by far have the longest road ahead.

If bars can show that they are primarily restaurants with food service, ADHS will start letting some of them operate in that capacity. But not until there is a 3% positivity rate for Covid-19 tests will bars with 6 and 7 licenses be allowed to operate the way they did before, and even then it will be at 50% capacity. Wurman said many of these businesses won’t be able to survive staying closed that long.

So far, some 40 Arizona bars have been denied in their bid to reopen by ADHS, which is fielding hundreds of applications from gyms, bars and movie theaters seeking to restart operations.

ADHS Director Dr. Cara Christ said that she couldn’t imagine a world where bars are allowed to fully reopen until after there is a vaccine for Covid-19 available.

“If that’s the standard there will be no bars left in Arizona,” Wurman said. “It’s just so utterly insane and ignorant of them to say that’s the standard.”

To make that point, bar owners involved in the lawsuit organized a protest for Thursday afternoon at the Arizona Capitol. They are calling it the “Not Our Last Call Rally.”

Unlike other protests over against Ducey’s restrictions during Covid-19, the organizers of this rally are calling for attendees to wear masks and socially distance.

Other argument
Besides the argument that there is little difference between license types, Wurman is also arguing to the Supreme Court that Ducey might not have the authority to keep enacting rules like this.

In the spring, Ducey declared a state of emergency in the state of Arizona, and with that declaration he has justified a number of executive orders. Wurman said that Ducey basically turned himself into a lawmaker.

“It can’t be true that the emergency statute gives the governor authority for the foreseeable future to decide on a wide range of important policy questions involving the social and economic effects of the coronavirus,” Wurman said. “It can’t be that he has total power for the foreseeable future so long as he deems there to be an emergency.”