A pandemic-era legal battle over North Carolina bar closures is heading back to court next month, hit with a localized push by eastern North Carolina business owners.
Special Superior Court Judge Edwin Wilson has scheduled a June ninth hearing to finalize which businesses can sue the state for financial damages.
Local venues like New Bern’s Beer Army Burger Company and Greenville’s Club 519 joined the multi-year legal fight. They argue that forcing private taverns to lock down while restaurants and breweries reopened violated their constitutional right to the fruits of their own labor.
The state is asking the judge to dismiss the overarching Bar and Tavern Association from the suit, which would leave individual local bar owners to fight for their financial damages alone.
