The owners of a Colorado restaurant that reopened in defiance of the governor’s lockdown orders are now suing the state government, as reported by The Hill.
Jesse and April Arellano, the owners of C&C Coffee and Kitchen, generated headlines when they reopened their business on Mother’s Day and saw a flood of customers, even though the state’s lockdown orders were still in effect at the time.
The lawsuit has been filed in the Douglas County District Court, and names Governor Jared Polis (D-Colo.), the Tri-County Health Department, and Director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Jill Ryan as defendants. The suit alleges that the state government’s decision to retaliate by suspending the restaurant’s license was “unlawful.”
Polis defended his actions at the time, saying that “if the state didn’t act and more businesses followed suit” in reopening just like C&C, then “it’s a near guarantee people would lose their lives,” a claim that he made without any evidence.
Resistance to ongoing lockdown orders has been growing rapidly across the country. Businesses have been reopening in even the strictest Democratic states, including Michigan, and videos went viral of Memorial Day vacationers gathered in massive crowds in Maryland and Missouri at the Lake of the Ozarks.