Bar owners in Texas and Florida are taking their state governments to court for shutting them down while leaving open restaurants that have full-service bars, The Washington Times reported. Republican Govs. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott of Texas issued orders for bars in their states to close at the end of June due to rising COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, blaming the spike on bars with young people. Now bar owners are pushing back, arguing that many restaurants have full-service bars too, so the order is arbitrary. They also say there is no scientific evidence to support that bars being open led to a spike in COVID-19 cases. “Our folks aren’t trying to throw out all restrictions. They just want to be open and comply with the law fairly,” said John Dill, an attorney representing a group of bar owners in Orlando, Fla. “We are just looking for them to be playing on the same playing field as the restaurants.” Dill said that the state should punish bars and establishments that are not following social distancing orders instead of penalizing all bars, including those that have complied with sanitation, capacity, mask and social distancing regulations. The group of bars seeks a temporary injunction against the governor’s order and hopes the judge will set an emergency hearing in the coming days.
