Bowling alleys roll a strike in lawsuit against Cooper’s coronavirus closures
Another piece of Gov. Roy Cooper’s plans to try to stop the spread of coronavirus is in the gutter, as some bowling alleys won the right to reopen in a court case Tuesday.
There have been numerous lawsuits over pieces of Cooper’s coronavirus executive orders. The results have been mixed, with Cooper winning legal battles over strip clubs, bars, gyms and a racetrack but losing others over churches and, now, bowling alleys.
The judge in the bowling alley case, Wake County Superior Court Judge James Gale, noted that Cooper has allowed some other types of indoor businesses to reopen in his current Phase Two of reopening. He said Cooper didn’t give good enough evidence why bowling alleys should remain closed.
Cooper spokesperson Ford Porter said the governor plans to immediately appeal the ruling.
“Hospitalizations and positive cases are reaching record highs while the Governor works to get schools open and prevent the state from going backward on restrictions,” Porter said in a written statement.
The ruling will not necessarily allow every bowling alley in the state to reopen. It applies to the 75 businesses that are members of the North Carolina Bowling Proprietors Association. It wasn’t immediately clear which businesses that includes. Neither the court ruling nor the group’s website lists the group’s members.
Masks, cleaning shoes
The judge wrote that keeping those bowling alleys closed was unfair because the group had promised to “commit to operational changes to address those factors, including procedures for social distancing and sanitation, and, most significantly, requiring employees and bowlers to wear face coverings.”
Some of the other safety requirements at the newly reopened facilities will include provisions like keeping every other lane empty and using fiberglass dividers between them, and requiring frequent cleaning of items like rented shoes and bowling balls, the judge ordered.
The judge also criticized Cooper for not being more willing to work with the bowling alleys on coming to such an arrangement already.
Cooper “has steadfastly refused to review and respond to (the bowling alleys’) proposed operational changes,” Gale wrote, adding that it appears “the governor has no reasonable basis to continue to treat bowling alleys differently than businesses sharing common risks which he has allowed to reopen during Phase 2.”
N.C. House Speaker Tim Moore, a Republican from Cleveland County who has been at odds with Cooper on many coronavirus and reopening debates, said in a news release Tuesday that he agrees with the judge’s ruling that Cooper’s three-phase reopening plan was unfair to some businesses.
“The Governor’s inconsistent approach to closing businesses has been unfair, inequitable, and thus illegal from the start,” Moore said. “I continue to urge the Governor to produce a plan for all North Carolina companies, to communicate that plan, and to help businesses comply with consistent protocols so they may safely operate.”
However, the courts have so far allowed different types of businesses to be treated differently.
The judge in this case, Gale, is the same judge who ruled in Cooper’s favor just days ago in a different lawsuit brought by the owners of 200 bars around the state who also wanted to reopen their businesses during Phase Two of Cooper’s plan. His ruling kept them closed.
In that case, The News & Observer reported, Gale noted that the political debate over how to handle COVID-19 and reopening plans is contentious, but it’s not the role of the courts system to weigh in on which side is right.
“That decision was debatable when first made, and the debate has intensified as many states have begun to reopen their economies, accompanied by public reports on the impact of those reopenings,” Gale wrote.
However, he added in that case, Cooper made a “sufficiently reasonable” argument to keep bars closed for public health reasons. People who are out drinking, the state had argued, are more likely to do things that might hasten the spread of coronavirus like singing, shouting or not social distancing.
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This story was originally published July 7, 2020 at 3:14 PM with the headline "Bowling alleys roll a strike in lawsuit against Cooper’s coronavirus closures."
