{"id":1695603,"date":"2022-10-14T06:01:09","date_gmt":"2022-10-14T10:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1695603"},"modified":"2022-10-16T12:37:19","modified_gmt":"2022-10-16T16:37:19","slug":"restaurant-sues-washington-dc-health-department-after-being-closed-for-violating-covid-19-vaccine-mandate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/restaurant-sues-washington-dc-health-department-after-being-closed-for-violating-covid-19-vaccine-mandate\/","title":{"rendered":"Restaurant Sues Washington, DC Health Department After Being Closed for Violating COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Frestaurant-sues-washington-dc-health-department-after-being-closed-for-violating-covid-19-vaccine-mandate%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1695603&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The owner of a restaurant shut down by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-washington\">Washington<\/a>, D.C., officials for violating the city\u2019s strict COVID-19 vaccine mandate sued the city on Oct. 13.<\/p>\n<p>Eric Flannery owns The Big Board. Washington authorities in February ordered the restaurant to close, citing violations of food code regulations and Mayor Muriel Bowser\u2019s requirements that venues only let in customers who presented proof of COVID-19 vaccination.<\/p>\n<p>The D.C. Department of Health\u2019s actions, including making the restaurant pay a re-opening fee, were unlawful because\u00a0the District of Columbia\u2019s Home Rule Act generally requires legislation enacted by the city be reviewed by Congress, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/23131509-flannery-v-dc\">Flannery\u2019s lawsuit<\/a>, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.<\/p>\n<p>Emergency legislation is exempted from the Home Rule, but only for 90 days.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Mayor\u2019s rolling \u2019emergency\u2019 orders authorized by the D.C. Council\u2019s successive emergency amendments make a mockery of this constitutional requirement. The repeated extension of emergency orders for months on end, authorized by the D.C. Council\u2019s emergency legislation\u2014which was not approved by Congress\u2014have thwarted Congress\u2019s reserved constitutional power under D.C. Code \u00a7 1\u2013206.02(c)(1),\u201d the lawsuit states.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a result, the Mayor\u2019s Orders upon which the DC Health suspension and fines relied are <em>ultra vires<\/em>, and the suspension and the fines themselves, are <em>ultra vires<\/em>, null, and void.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bowser, a Democrat, issued emergency orders in March 2020 and they were repeatedly extended after authorization by the D.C. Council.<\/p>\n<p>Bowser\u2019s Dec. 20, 2021, order mandated masks in many indoor venues and another order said restaurants could not let in any people over age 12 unless the people presented proof of vaccination. Violations of those orders were cited in the shutdown order.<\/p>\n<p>The vaccination requirement was lifted on Feb. 15 and the mask requirement was withdrawn on March 1.<\/p>\n<p>Flannery wants the court to declare that the health agency\u2019s actions were illegal in part because the legislative amendments and emergency order extensions violated the Home Rule Act and the power Congress is granted in the U.S. Constitution; that the actions exceeded the agency\u2019s regulatory authority; and award damages, including the $100 reopening fee.<\/p>\n<p>The D.C. Department of Health, the D.C.\u00a0Mayor\u2019s Office of Legal Counsel, and the mayor\u2019s office did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis case is not just about The Big Board,\u201d Robert Alt, president and chief executive officer of The Buckeye Institute, which is representing Flannery, said in a statement. \u201cIt is about ensuring that government abides by the U.S. Constitution even during emergencies including global pandemics\u2014perhaps especially then. We are a nation of laws, not of autocratic mayors, city councils, and government agencies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>   <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-zachary-stieber\"><\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Follow<\/p>\n<p>Zachary Stieber covers U.S. and world news for The Epoch Times. He is based in Maryland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The owner of a restaurant shut down by Washington, D.C., officials for violating the city\u2019s strict COVID-19 vaccine mandate sued the city on Oct. 13. Eric Flannery owns The Big Board. Washington authorities in February ordered the restaurant to close, citing violations of food code regulations and Mayor Muriel Bowser\u2019s requirements that venues only let &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1695402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1695603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1695603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1695603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1695603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1695402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1695603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1695603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1695603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}