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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe owners of 20 Marion County bars and nightclubs are suing Indianapolis, Mayor Joe Hogsett, and the Marion County Public Health Department and its director, Dr. Virginia Caine, over COVID-19 pandemic restrictions that they say violate their constitutional rights.
The 42-page complaint, filed Tuesday, takes issue with Marion County’s pandemic public health order because it includes tougher restrictions on bars and nightclubs in Marion County than those in the rest of the state. Among those disparities are rules regarding capacity limits, bar seating, treatment of adults-only establishments, live entertainment and dancing, and hours of business.
The owners say those tougher restrictions—which they label “arbitrary and unreasonable”—violate their constitutional rights of equal protection “by singling out their businesses to bear the brunt of months-long business closures and overstrict capacity requirements.”
The complaint was filed by the owners of Tiki Bob’s Cantina, Invy Nightclub, Coaches Tavern, Courtside Convenience, Joe’s Grill Castleton, The Whistle Stop Inn, That Place Bar & Grill, Taps and Dolls, After 6 Lounge, Jokers Comedy Club, 247 Sky Bar, Whiskey Business Southport and Whiskey Business Lawrence, Average Joe Sport’s Pub, Rock Lobster, Mineshaft Saloon, Basey’s Downtown, The Red Room, Mickie’s Pub and Sports Page Lounge.
In a statement, the owners said they “banded together to fight for their survival against stringent and inflexible business restrictions that have led to millions of dollars in losses over a period of just a few months. … Forced business closures by the city, and then later, severe business restrictions more stringent than those put in place by the governor in his Back on Track Indiana plan, have put each of these owners and their families on the brink of financial ruin.”
The owners say the county’s tougher restrictions have caused them lose significant revenue, lay off employees, incur significant debt and put them in eminent danger of permanently closing.
They say those restrictions have been left in place even though deaths caused by COVID-19 in Marion County have decreased since spring and industries and schools have reopened.
The plaintiffs, represented by Richard Bucheri of Poynter & Bucheri LLC, seek declaratory relief, injunctive relief and damages.
They want the court to find the orders unlawful and to strike them down.
Bars and nightclubs in Marion County were allowed to reopen June 19 after being closed for three months due to the pandemic, but they were forced to close a month later, on July 24, when the county health department issued a new public health order that shut down bars and nightclubs and ordered restaurants to close from midnight to 5 a.m.
At the time, Marion County was experiencing a surge in the number of people under 40 who were testing positive for the coronavirus.
The lawsuit states that bar and nightclub owners were caught off guard by the re-closing order and were given no timeline for when they would be allowed to reopen again.
On Sept. 8, Caine issued a new public health order that allowed bars and night clubs to open at 25% capacity indoor seating and 50% capacity outdoors. But the public health order, which is still in effect, kept bar-top seating closed and prohibited dancing and live entertainment. Restaurants are still required to close between midnight and 5 a.m.
The orders have been stricter than the state’s, which currently allow restaurants and bars with dining service to operate at 75% capacity and bars and nightclubs to operate at 50% capacity.
The lawsuit argues that the county health department order gives no medical or scientific justification for why Marion County should be treated differently than the rest of the state or why bars are treated differently than other businesses.
The lawsuit said the county doesn’t provide a process for businesses to seek an amendment, variance or waiver to the order.
The plaintiffs say state law doesn’t give local health officers the authority to regulate or close businesses indefinitely; that Indianapolis bars and restaurants have paid food and beverage taxes that have financed the building and expansion of massive city projects; and that there has been no “meaningful dialogue or support” from the defendants to mitigate the severe financial consequences caused by the public health order.
In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs give estimates on how much the restrictions have cost them. Tiki Bob’s Cantina, for example, says it has lost more than $1.5 million in irreplaceable revenue and has exhausted all money it received from the Paycheck Protection Program. Invy Nightclub reported the same revenue losses.
Coaches Tavern said it has lost $500,000 in revenue since March.
Mark Bode, a spokesman for the mayor, said the city does not comment on pending litigation, but added that Hogsett “fully supports the Marion County Public Health Department’s leadership and ongoing health orders, which have slowed the spread of the virus in our city and continue to save lives.”
A spokesman for the health department did not immediately respond to IBJ’s request for comment.
Caine has previously said that bars and nightclubs need more restrictions because they attract large groups of young people who closely mingle, and virus transmission has been shown to increase when groups congregate indoors.
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Bravo !
Hold Boss Hogsett’s feet to the fire.
This political pandemic has ruined small business due to an overreach of power without honest data to support.
Open the city, open the county, open the state!
Thanks for the awesome out loud laugh you gave me today…Boss HOGsett! 😂
I hope they get 50 mill to split up. They deserve it.
The only bad part is that it comes out of my pocket, your pocket and all the taxpayers pocket of Marion County. No skin off Hogsett’s back.
impeach hogsett – or recall him or whatever. worst mayor in the history of the city.
we need to sue hogsett for telling the police to stand down and letting the “peaceful protesters” destroy downtown.
that is all on him.
Absolutely deserve it, Hogsett is a coward and an idiot.
Impose sanctions on the lawyer and bar owners for bringing this meritless, frivolous bit of litigation. Pure show. Boycott these bars if ever they reopen. Better yet they close for good. It’s time to recognize that people, especially the 18-30 year old cohort of the population, lack the discipline to maintain their distance and wear masks. The medical evidence, not to mention the body count, clearly supports these restrictions. Walked down Mass Avenue and sat and ate dinner a few weeks back, and saw firsthand how little regard those visiting the bars had for themselves, their friends, passersby, and the employees of the bars and restaurants. CV-19 kills, far more than STDs, but I bet few among that crowd would agree to not use protective devices for sex. But they’ll stand inches apart, oblivious to the dangers of asymptomatic carriers; a group particularly prevalent among the 18-30 cohort. Maybe the Disciplinary Commission needs to investigate these lawyers.
Time to order your bubble suit Tim because covid 19 is here to stay.
Tim just complained about others doing the same exact thing he did: going to a restaurant on Mass Ave.
Sorry Timmy!
We business owners – many 30-60+ year olds – are fed up with this erroneous data garbage and forced political porn for the election.
Stay in your house Timbo.
It’s time to open the city, county and state. Should have happened 3 months ago!
Hahaha you think people in their 20s and 30s on Mass Ave use condoms!
Tim S. just stay at home and let others enjoy their life!
I have a friend that spent millions to rehab a bar downtown right before Covid hit. Was going to open. Had to postpone. 6 months later, still not open and costing him serious $$$ Just ridiculous.
It’s about time someone stood up to this tyranny! Unfortunately we no longer live in a free country as this entire “panic demic” ( yes I spelled it that way on purpose) has been turned into a huge power play of government telling everyone what they can and cannot do with no end in sight. It’s so sad to see what this once great country has been reduced to by politicians using a “crisis” to their advantage.
As the politicians say, “Never let a crisis go to waste.” But shame on us as the electorate for continuing to allow/tolerate it.
One can get a clear understanding of the competence of local governmental officials when they decided to allow the Indy 11 to allow a much larger number of fans to attend their matches than they allowed the Colts to attend their games (played in the same stadium, by the way). Either the bureaucrats didn’t do their homework to realize they had two different limits, or they knew but it didn’t dawn on them there was no no logical rationale for the difference. Lack of thoroughness, or stupidity, either way less than impressive.
More troubling than the lack of consistency is the likelihood of expanded government interference in the future. Should we shut down businesses, or limit their attendance during flu season similar to what has happened in this pandemic? Why not? – people catch the flu and some die… We could save lives if everyone stayed home. We’ve never done that, but our society continues to devolve in a number of ways, citing “times are changing”.
Some automobile accidents kill people – should we ban driving? Inarguably, it would save lives.
We could ban alcohol (oh wait, we already tried that), cigarettes, and marijuana. The ironic thing is we are actually expanding the legalization of marijuana, which will cost some number (maybe even a low number, but some number nonetheless) of lives.
+1