The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- New York (United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York) · New York
- Level
- Court
- Authority
- 28 U.S.C. § 1331; Fed. R. Civ. P. 65; U.S. Const. amend. XIV; N.Y. C.P.L.R. art. 78
- Issued
- 2020-10-16 Oct. 16, 2020
- Effective
- 2020-10-16 (ruling announced from the bench October 6, 2020) (read as 2020-10-16)
- End
- not applicable (read as 2020-12-31)
- In force
- Oct. 16, 2020 to Dec. 31, 2020
- Quarters
- 2020 Q4
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Capacity limitCurfew and hoursAlcohol and bars
- Addressees
- specified businesses (New York City food service establishments); by its reasoning, every business subject to the Governor's operating conditions
- Character
- adjudication
- Collection
- Standing duties: New York DUT-NY
Operative words
Under Jacobson, the state may curtail constitutional rights in response to a society-threatening epidemic so long as the measures have at least some "real or substantial relation" to the public health crisis and are not "beyond all question, a plain, palpable invasion of rights secured by the fundamental law."
Penalty
Not applicable (judicial decision); the underlying directive was enforced through Public Health Law §§ 12 and 12-b and the State Liquor Authority (Exs. NY-016, NY-102, NY-103)
What it required
Sustained, against a substantive due process and Article 78 challenge, the Governor's rule 'prohibiting service after midnight in New York City food service establishments' as a binding operating condition on a reopened business, applying Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11 (1905), and holding that the federal judiciary 'should not second-guess these actions' of officials 'actively shaping their response to changing facts on the ground.' Character as recorded: adjudication (order_operating_condition layer).
Retrieval noteOfficial court opinion from the GPO's United States Courts Opinions collection (12 pages). The opinion states: 'At the conclusion of a hearing on October 6, 2020, I denied plaintiff's motion for a preliminary injunction on the record.' The Federal Supplement citation was not verified in this session and is not used. The midnight rule attached to New York City indoor dining at 25 percent from September 30, 2020 (Exs. NY-050, NY-115).