Supreme Court dismisses Orlando bar closure case
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear arguments from Florida lawyers that they should be compensated due to government-mandated closures at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The court, as usual, did not explain the decision. But the judges effectively upheld the decision of the state’s 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which dismissed arguments that the shutdown amounted to so-called “reverse conviction.”
The Florida Supreme Court also declined to hear the dispute in October. Orlando Bar Group LLC, which does business with The Basement bar, The Attic bar and The Treehouse bar, as well as other bar owners, filed a lawsuit against the State and County of Orange.
Lawyers argued that the 2020 COVID-19 restrictions were arbitrary and constituted an unconstitutional seizure of property rights, entitlement to damages. But Orange County District Judge John Jordan and an appeals court dismissed those arguments.
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In a petition filed in January with the U.S. Supreme Court, the bars partly pointed to the fact that restaurants could continue to operate while bars were closed to try to prevent the spread of the virus.
“Temporary closures of businesses for more than a few weeks without any due process for the intended public good require the public to bear the burden of such closures,” the petition reads. “If due process is not followed for businesses suspected of causing public harm as a carrier of COVID-19, while other similar businesses are allowed to operate, there is an arbitrary exercise of police power, whereby the public must bear the burden of closing them. “.
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texasstandard.news contributed to this report.
