San Diego judge says ruling upending COVID closures also applies to restaurants in county

A man wearing a face mask posts a notice in a business window

San Diego Union-Tribune

Dec. 17, 2020 6:14 PM PT

SAN DIEGO — A San Diego Superior Court judge made it clear Thursday afternoon: An injunction he issued late Wednesday that stopped state and local officials from enforcing the COVID-19 shutdown on two strip clubs also applies to all restaurants in the county.

The clarification by Judge Joel Wohlfeil came in a response from a morning request by San Diego County and state lawyers, who sought to clear up ambiguity in Wohlfeil’s ruling in a case filed by Pacers and Cheetahs adult entertainment clubs.

Wohlfeil wrote that the order applies to the two clubs and added the phrase, “San Diego county businesses with restaurant services.” No restaurants were plaintiffs in the case.

During a brief hearing Wohlfeil said: “The court’s intention is all businesses which provide restaurant services in the county of San Diego are encompassed in the court’s order.”

The state is appealing the ruling to the 4th District Court of Appeal, according to San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher and Jason Saccuzzo, a lawyer for Pacers. The state is likely to ask for a stay, halting the impact of Wohlfeil’s ruling until the appeal can be heard.

The judge’s ruling means restrictions that limited restaurants to providing takeout service are, for the moment, no longer applicable. County officials said Wednesday night they would no longer enforce restrictions against restaurants and live entertainment venues.

On Thursday, the city of Carlsbad said it, too, would suspend enforcing orders as they relate to restaurants.

The judge said neither the state nor the county had provided sufficient evidence showing that restaurants and live entertainment venues operating with safety measures in place contributed to spread of the novel coronavirus or the impact on hospital intensive care units, and the restrictions could not be justified.

Moran writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

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Greg Moran

Greg Moran is a reporter covering criminal justice and legal affairs issues on the Public Safety team. He has worked for the Union-Tribune since 1991. He covered state, federal and appellate courts for 17 years. He has also been an investigative reporter on The Watchdog team and a reporter on the enterprise reporting team. He is a graduate of Carleton College and previously worked at newspapers in Minnesota and New York.

Pam Kragen

Pam Kragen is the arts and entertainment editor, as well as the chief theater, dining and opera critic, for the San Diego Union-Tribune. She joined the Union-Tribune staff in October 2012 after 27 years at the North County Times, where she served as the Arts & Features Editor, as well as the paper’s longtime arts writer and theater and opera critic. She is the co-founder of the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in journalism from San Diego State University and completed fellowships in theater criticism at the University of Southern California and opera-classical music criticism at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. And in 2022, she was chosen as one of the fellows in the prestigious National Critics Institute, run by the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterf, Conn.

San Diego judge says ruling upending COVID closures also applies to restaurants in county

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