Ohio Restaurants Sue Dr. Acton, Gov. DeWine over ‘Unconstitutional’ Coronavirus Guidelines

Eight restaurants filed a lawsuit Thursday in Lake County, Ohio, against Department of Health (ODH) Director Dr. Amy Acton and Gov. Mike DeWine (R) over coronavirus guidelines.

“In the court filing the restaurants claim that the regulations laid out by the ODH director are ‘vague’ and ‘unconstitutional,'” according to WKYC.

“These restrictions, the complaint continues, ‘expose the restaurant and bar owners to unconstitutional strict criminal penalties [for] conduct of others they have no reasonable control over,'” the report stated.

The restaurants included the Diamondback Bar, Harry Buffalo, Islander Bar and Grill, Grayton Road Tavern, Park Street Cantina, Townhall, Bar 30, and Frank and Tony’s, according to Fox 8.

The complaint’s introduction read:

As a direct and proximate result of the unconstitutional Order(s) issued by Acton, together with the enforcement efforts by local  health departments, all Plaintiffs face imminent risk of losing their business, their livelihoods and economic security, of being criminally prosecuted and suffering irreperable harm to their rights as citizens in the State of Ohio to be treated equally under the law, to receive due process and to be protected from the arbitrary conduct of an unelected official in whom virtually all powers of government, legislative and executive power, have been singularly, unconstitutionally and unlawfully reposed.

“The suit claims the guidelines unfairly single them out and are unconstitutional because they have caused loss of property, loss of freedom and loss of pursuit of happiness,” the Fox 8 report noted.

In May, Lake County Common Pleas Judge Eugene Lucci deemed the state’s lockdown illegal and said Acton “acted in an impermissibly arbitrary, unreasonable, and oppressive manner,” according to Breitbart News.

“The director has quarantined the entire people of the state of Ohio, for much more than 14 days,” Lucci wrote, adding, “The director has no statutory authority to close all businesses — which she deems non-essential for a period of two months.”

The Ohio restaurant owners’ lawsuit asked for an injuction and declaratory judgment.