NEW ORLEANS (AP) – At a time when the federal government issued a ruling in Louisiana, it refused to block a bar closing order issued through Gov. John Bel Edwards to combat the spread of COVID-19.
Federal District Judge Robert Summerhays in Lafayette, about 225 miles west of New Orleans, in favor of the Democratic governor friday night in a lawsuit filed through 11 homeowners in southwest Louisiana.
A federal ruling issued in New Orleans on Monday sentenced 10 homeowners in southeastern Louisiana.
Both judges ruled that closure is legal under the governor’s broad powers of emergency public fitness. The same lawyer has dealt with both cases and has already appealed the New Orleans decision.
“The record here reflects a ‘real and really extensive relationship’ between the restrictions similar to the governor’s bar and the state’s efforts to spread COVID-19,” Summerhays wrote.
The homeowners’ attorney in both cases is Jimmy Faircloth, executive adviser to the management of former Republican governor Bobthrough Jindal. In either case, bar owners argue that the bars were closed without due process or equivalent coverage by law.
Edwards, a Democrat, testified in the Lafayette case. He has faced pressure from Republican lawmakers to ease restrictions on viruses. Edwards argues that the restrictions are and strives to decrease infections after the state has experienced a resurgence of infections and hospitalizations in the summer due to the virus.
At the center of the arguments is whether statistics on food closures in bars (orders allow takeaway and delivery), while places to eat with bars are not closed. State officials noted that, according to state guidelines, bars in places to eat will have to serve food and take other steps to discourage the lack of social estrangement that characterizes an independent bar.
For others, coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But for others, especially the elderly and others with fitness problems, the highly contagious virus can cause severe symptoms and be fatal.
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