LOS ANGELES - California officials like Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Xavier Becerra face a lawsuit in Los Angeles federal court from a group of Coachella Valley restaurant owners who say the current lockdown policies have gone on long enough.
Plaintiff Coachella Valley Hospitality Unites (CVHU) is a group of Coachella Valley restaurant owners formed to challenge the state's lockdown procedures. It also sued on Feb. 26 Acting State Public Health Officer Dr. Erica S. Pan and the State of California Health and Human Services Agency.
The plaintiff calls the defendants' COVID-19 policies a "gross abuse of power" and detrimental to the public's health and well-being. According to the suit, Gov. Newsom's executive order that deemed restaurants non-essential and forced the shutdown of dining establishments under penalty of fines and imprisonment was wrongfully placed in the hands of defendant Dr. Pan.
The suit says that the orders were not being dictated by the state legislature or following state law as they should have been.
CVHU says members lost money through the expenses of implementing safety measures to safely reopen at half capacity in May 2020, only to be again shut down less than two months later. The suit also says that the defendants ignored guidance from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that outdoor dining was safe to resume.
The defendants are sued for alleged violation of First Amendment freedom of assembly, violation of Fifth and 14th amendments' due process clauses, violation of the 14th Amendment equal protection clause and excessive fines/cruel and unusual punishment.
The plaintiffs are asking the court to declare many pandemic executive orders as unconstitutional and enjoin the state from further enforcing pandemic mitigation through regional shutdown/stay-at-home orders.
CVHU is represented by Dhillon Law Group and Geragos and Geragos APC.