The Alexandria-based attorney representing 11 Acadiana bar owners who filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Gov. John Bel Edwards, arguing the governor’s coronavirus rules limiting bars to takeout and delivery unlawfully target one business sector and impose overly harsh restrictions, says he intends to soon file an identical suit in the Eastern District, but isn’t yet sure whether he’ll do so in the Middle District, which includes Baton Rouge.
The lawsuit names the Democratic governor and Fire Marshal Butch Browning, the chief enforcement officer of the virus regulations for Edwards, as defendants. It was filed in Lafayette federal court by bars located across Acadiana, including in New Iberia, Morgan City, Youngsville and Lafayette. Lawyer Jimmy Faircloth, who’s representing the bar owners, tells Daily Report he’ll likely file the identical suit in the Eastern District either later this afternoon or tomorrow.
While he hasn’t ruled out doing the same in the Baton Rouge area, Faircloth didn’t want to file one of the initial claims in the Middle District because, as the home of Tigerland, where a COVID-19 outbreak occurred this summer, Faircloth believes claims filed in the area “should be treated differently.”
“Depending on the docketing process and how the other two suits move forward, it might not be necessary to file in the Middle District,” Faircloth says, noting he believes Baton Rouge bar owners do, however, have a valid claim. “If we don’t, someone else will. We have many [Baton Rouge] bar owners who have inquired about joining. There’s certainly a lot of interest.”
The bars argue that Edwards cannot show a “real or substantial relation” between the closure of bars to on-site drinking and the public health crisis. They say only a small number of known COVID-19 cases have been traced to bars by the state, and they say none of those cases was tracked to their businesses.
Faircloth says Edwards’ coronavirus restrictions “may have warranted the benefit of the doubt” in the early days of the outbreak of the COVID-19 disease caused by the virus. But he says more scientific data is now available, and he argues that data undermines Edwards’ decision.
“Further, the public has become well-versed in the art of social distancing, and businesses have learned to alter their environments to accommodate this practice. Simply put, although perhaps justified months ago, it is no longer sufficient to rely on hysteria, hearsay or biased commentary as a basis to impose overly-broad, draconian restrictions on fundamental rights,” wrote Faircloth, a one-time executive counsel to former Gov. Bobby Jindal.
The Louisiana Department of Health says it has traced 464 confirmed coronavirus infections to 41 bars, among the largest number of cases tracked to a specific type of business.
Edwards banned on-site consumption at bars earlier this month after previously allowing bars to reopen with restaurants and other businesses. The governor and his health advisers say bars have shown to be specifically problematic because people tend to huddle closely together inside without masks while drinking and lapse in their virus precautions with the more alcohol they consume.
The White House’s coronavirus task force recommended that Louisiana close bars to reduce public health risks and to lessen the virus spread.
“Gov. Edwards is confident that the action he has taken to close bars to on premises consumption is both legal and necessary to protect the health and safety of the people of Louisiana, and the White House agrees with him,” Edwards spokeswoman Christina Stephens said in a statement Wednesday.
She added: “Louisiana has seen increasing case counts in recent weeks, and the governor did what is necessary to reduce the spread and make sure our health care system is not overrun.”
Hospital leaders in the Acadiana region have worried about the rising number of COVID-19 patients in their facilities, saying they are running out of space and canceling some elective surgeries.
The bars argue in their lawsuit that the virus cases tracked to bars represent less than half of 1 percent of the more than 100,000 confirmed cases across Louisiana. The lawsuit suggests bars do not pose a disproportionately high risk to the public that justifies restrictions targeted specifically to them. They say Edwards’ actions violate federal and state constitutional protections.
