BUFFALO, N.Y. — New York State Supreme Court Justice Diane Y. Devlin has ruled in favor of a business that sought relief from New York State's shutdown orders of certain businesses operating within "Orange Zones."
Zoom Tan went to court to be allowed to continue to operate because it contended, among other things, that the state misclassified it as a "personal care business."
In part of her ruling the judge determined that, "managing a pandemic does not necessarily mean that Constitutional rights are to be discarded, or in this case, not given proper scrutiny shuttering a business that employs members of the general public and provides a benefit that its customers enjoy."
In language that might further boost the hopes of other businesses taking the state to court and claiming the shutdown orders have been arbitrary and capricious, the judge wrote:
"The Court of Appeals has defined arbitrary and capricious as one which has no basis in fact or reason. It is clear from these and other examples that Respondents (the state) have made changes to how the pandemic has been mismanaged. The court agrees with the Petitioner (Zoom Tan) that it is arbitrary and capricious to use an economic classification system as the basis for shutting its business down. It is further arbitrary and capricious that the Department of Health would shut Petitioner down without indicating any reasons as to why its business models or practices have a high risk of spreading the virus while permitting malls, retail stores , and movie theaters to remain open.
