BUFFALO, N.Y. — A judge held off on issuing a decision in the restaurant curfew case during a hearing Tuesday.
During a virtual hearing not open to the public, attorneys representing the 90-plus Western New York restaurant owners who are fighting the state's curfew said the judge will issue a written decision, and there's no timetable for that.
Here's some of the back story. Last week, an appellate judge signed an order putting the 10 p.m. restaurant curfew back in place. That lifted the temporary restraining order that had allowed the nearly 100 restaurants to stay open past 10 p.m. Then, the governor extended closing time to 11 p.m. adding an extra hour.
Attorney Corey Hogan, who represents the restaurant owners, spoke with reporters after the hearing. He says the state's own data showed that less than 1.5-percent of COVID-19 cases in the state came from restaurants.
"They make the argument that they're setting 10 p.m. at night because they feel that anything after that people will start getting more inebriated even though it's clear that the order applies to restaurants where alcohol is not served, and that's what the Executive Order says," Hogan said.
"It applies to a restaurant whether they serve alcohol or not. So they argue that after 10 p.m. it becomes dangerous, but then when they extend it to 11 p.m., and there's no science behind that, no one really knows that, they're just guessing. I think it's like a little bit of a bonus that the governor gives out because all of his little kiddies have behaved themselves, and so then he allows everybody to have it until 11 p.m. with the idea being, I guess, that if we continue to behave ourselves, they'll extend it beyond that. But this isn't a game. These are people's livelihoods."
While there's no timetable for the judge's decision, Hogan is hopeful it'll only take a couple of days. There is another court date set for March 15 with a different judge.