The North Carolina Supreme Court issued favorable rulings Friday for bars and their operators in litigation seeking monetary compensation fro
m the state for COVID-19 restrictions first issued by then-Gov. Roy Cooper that shuttered their doors and, in their view, treated them unfairly compared to restaurants.
The majority decisions by the justices mean a pair of lawsuits — one filed by several North Carolina bars and their operators and the second by the North Carolin
a Bar and Tavern Association and other private bars — remain alive, and future court orders directing the state to pay them financial damages are possible.
As a way to ease the spread of coronavirus, Cooper — a Democrat who left office last December and is now running for U.S. Senate — issued a series of
executive orders that closed bars starting in March 2020. By that summer, bars still had to remain closed, but restaurants and breweries could serve alcohol duri
ng certain hours. Later in 2020, bars could serve alcoholic drinks in outdoor seating, with time limits later added, but the indictments said it was unprofitable to operate
. All temporary restrictions on bars were lifted in May 2021.
Lawyers defending Cooper have said the orders issued in the ninth-largest state were based on the most current sc
ientific studies and public health data available at a time when thousands were ill or dying and vaccines weren't widely available.
On Friday, the court’s five Republican justices in one lawsuit agreed it could continue to trial, rejecting argument
nts from state attorneys that the litigation must be halted based on a legal doctrine that exempts state government from most lawsuits. That decision largely upheld a
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Court of Appeals decision from two years ago that had affirmed a trial judge’s order to allow the action filed by Tiffany Howell, seven other people and nine businesses to be heard.
“We acknowledge that the COVID-19 pandemic was a chaotic period of time,” Chief Justice Paul Newby wrote in the
prevailing opinion. “It is important to remember, however, that the Governor was not the only person facing uncertai
nty. Small business owners across the state dutifully shuttered their doors and scaled back operations without knowing exactly when they could open or operate fully again.”
A broader group of indictments — the North Carolina Bar and Tavern Association and scores of private bars — that sued se
parately but made similar claims received a favorable ruling last year from a Court of Appeals panel that reversed a trial judge's decision to dismiss the lawsuit.
Friday, the same five justices ruled that the Court of Appeals shouldn’t have allowed the association to sue based on claims its members’ constitutional right
s for equal treatment were violated. But the defendants can return to a trial judge now and present evidence on the claim that their right under the state constitution to earn a living was violated, Associate Justice Phil Berger Jr. wrote in the majority opinion.
The association and the private bars “sufficiently meaningfully imply unconstitutional interference, and thus have a right to seek discovery to prove those allegations are true,” Berger wrote.