The Minnesota Court of Appeals this week upheld the authority of the Minnesota Department of Health to enforce restrictions imposed on restaurants, bars and retailers during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and early 2021.
Norm’s Wayside in Buffalo, along with the Mission Tavern in Merrifield, Minnesota had filed an appeal after both were handed a liquor license suspension and up to a 10-thousand dollar fine for what the health department said were numerous violations of indoor food and liquor service, and non-compliance with mandatory masking rules. The suspensions and the revocations were later stayed.
The establishments’ legal representatives made a case that contested the penalties, reasoning that the health department did not have the authority to enforce the executive orders from the governor, and that the orders themselves were unconstitutional because they “….lacked a rational basis.”
The three-judge panel ruled that the MDH did have the statutory authority for enforcement under The Minnesota Health Enforcement Consolidation Act of 1993, and that the establishments had not demonstrated that the executive orders were not rational.
There has been no word yet whether or not the establishments will appeal to a federal court.
