The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- Virginia (United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia, Roanoke Division) · Virginia
- Level
- Court
- Authority
- Belle Garden Estate, LLC v. Northam, No. 7:21-cv-00135, ECF No. 24 (W.D. Va. Mar. 26, 2021) (Cullen, J.)
- Issued
- 2021-03-26 Mar. 26, 2021
- Effective
- 2021-03-26
- End
- Final as to the preliminary injunction; EO 72 was terminated by EO 79 at midnight May 28, 2021 (Exs. VA-017, VA-029) (read as 2021-05-28)
- In force
- Mar. 26, 2021 to May 28, 2021
- Quarters
- 2021 Q12021 Q2
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Capacity limitGathering capEvents and venuesOperating condition
- Addressees
- specified businesses (wedding and event venues; entertainment and amusement businesses under EO 72 as amended); by its reasoning, every business under EO 72
- Character
- adjudication
- Collection
- Standing duties: Virginia DUT-VA
Operative words
Belle Garden is unlikely to succeed on the merits of its First and Fourteenth Amendment claims, has not pleaded irreparable harm, and has failed to demonstrate that the equities or public interest weigh in favor of an injunction. The court will therefore deny its motion.
Penalty
Not a penalty instrument; it left EO 72 and its Class 1 misdemeanor enforcement in force
What it required
A federal court's refusal, in the first quarter of 2021, to relieve a Virginia event venue of the Fourth Amended EO 72's capacity conditions (entertainment and amusement businesses at 30 percent of capacity up to 250 persons; private bookings capped), holding the order a lawful exercise of the police power reviewed under the rational basis standard and describing the March 30, 2020 stay-at-home order and the phased orders that followed as the regime under which Virginia businesses had operated since; the opinion also records that the venue's claimed losses ran to '$5,000 to $8,000 per cancelled wedding.' Character as recorded: adjudication (order_operating_condition layer).
Retrieval noteEighteen-page memorandum opinion with a text layer (RECAP copy of ECF No. 24). Footnote 5 (at 17) records the court's view that the justification for restrictions on 'individuals and businesses, like Belle Garden' would require closer scrutiny 'if the pandemic continues to abate,' while sustaining the order as of March 26, 2021.