A lawsuit filed Wednesday against Texas Gov. Greg Abbott by eight bar owners alleges that the governor prioritized politics over science when he issued an order that shut down standalone bars statewide but not “affiliated” bars — bars within restaurants, hotels and other businesses.
The lawsuit, filed in Dallas County, alleges Abbott violated parts of the Texas Constitution when he issued a statewide order June 26 directing all establishments that generate at least 51% of their revenue from alcohol sales to shut down indefinitely within three hours of issuing the order.
The plaintiff group includes the owners of Dallas bars Citizen, Stirr Restaurant, Tiny Victory’s, High Fives, The Whippersnapper and Island Club; Austin bar Play on West 6th; and The Side Street Bar in Terrell, Texas.
The Office of the Texas Governor did not immediately return requests comment on the lawsuit, nor did the Office of the Texas Attorney General.
The lawsuit seeks a temporary restraining order that would ban Abbott from enforcing his executive order with respect to closing the plaintiffs’ business. However, at a Wednesday afternoon hearing, Dallas County Associate Judge Monica Purdy denied the plaintiffs’ TRO motion, according to Dallas attorney Jason Friedman, who represents the plaintiffs.
Friedman said he would appeal Judge Purdy’s ruling to the district court for a de novo review. According to Dallas County’s online docket, the case has been assigned to Dallas District Judge Martin Hoffman.
In addition to injunctive relief, the lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and two declaratory judgments: 1) that Abbott’s order violates the Texas Constitution, and 2) the order violates the Texas Disaster Relief Act.
The lawsuit follows others that have already been filed by Texas bar owners across the state, including a suit filed last week in Austin federal court against Abbott and the Texas Alcohol Beverage Commission. Others have been filed in state courts in Austin, Houston and Galveston, the Dallas Morning News reported.
In the Dallas suit, the bar owners claim Abbott’s intentions behind his executive order are political rather than scientific because there appears to be a connection between businesses not affected by the order and who is on the governor’s Texas COVID-19 task force. This includes:
- TRT Holdings Chairman Robert Rowling, whose company owns Gold’s Gym and the Omni Hotels;
- Landry’s Chairman and CEO Tilman Fertitta, whose company owns and operates more than 600 restaurants, hotels, casinos and entertainment destinations including amusement parks and aquariums; and
- Bobby Cox of Bobby Cox Companies, which owns Rosa’s Cafe, Taco Villa and Texas Burger.
Notably, bar owners are not represented on the task force, the suit says.
“The only thing accomplished by the bar shutdown order is the illusion that Governor Abbott has acted in a manner to advance the public’s health, when it does not,” the lawsuit says. “Such illusory governmental action can actually harm the public it pretends to protect, by giving them public a false sense of security that, by following the dictates of the law, they are protected.
“With no rational relationship to any governmental interest being served, EO GA-28 does nothing but raise false hope in the public, while pandering to the governor’s political influencers,” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit highlighted gyms, which have been singled out in other states as part of “one of the highest risk, if not the highest risk” industries affected by the spread of COVID-19.
“Everyone is sweating on each other, spitting on each other … there’s no ifs, ands or buts about it,” Friedman told The Texas Lawbook. “There’s sweat everywhere — sweat on the equipment, sweat on the benches, sweat on the floor, sweat in the air.”
In bowling alleys, Friedman said, “people are spitting on bowling balls, getting germs” everywhere.
“I guess he’s saying those are safe activities compared to being at a standalone bar,” Friedman said.
Moreover, the lawsuit says, some in the plaintiff group serve food in addition to alcohol, such as Stirr. Despite Stirr’s certificate of occupancy classifying it as a restaurant, the suit says the only reason Stirr was singled out in Abbott’s order is because it’s licensed as a bar.
“Rather than afford the standalone bars with the opportunity to operate and implement the same restrictions that restaurants and hotels are permitted to do, Governor Abbott simply shut them down,” the lawsuit says.
Friedman said he got involved in this case after Brandon Hays, the spearheader of the plaintiff group who owns the Whippersnapper, High Fives and Tiny Victories, called him.
“He said, ‘I’ve got families to feed, a 94-year-old grandmother at home and my wife is expecting a baby. Why am I being treated differently than a restaurant or a bar?’’’ Friedman said. “We studied the order and realized Gov. Abbott allowed affiliated bars — bars in hotels, bars in stadiums … even bars in restaurants to be open. How is this surge [in cases] caused by the bars? It looks to me like the bars didn’t cause it because they’ve been closed for almost two weeks and we’re surging.”