Sacramento gym owner latest to sue California governor over COVID-19 stay-at-home order
The owner of three Sacramento-area gyms forced to close because of the state’s emergency coronavirus orders is the latest to sue Gov. Gavin Newsom and other officials over California’s stay-at-home mandate, arguing the orders violate the Constitution and have cost him $850,000 so far.
Sean Covell, owner of Fitness System gyms in Sacramento’s Land Park neighborhood, West Sacramento and Lodi, sued the governor and San Joaquin County officials in federal court in Sacramento, arguing that “a cascading series of ham fisted” orders are destroying his business.
“These orders have, with the bludgeoning blow of the butcher, struck at and virtually destroyed civil rights and liberties of the plaintiffs,” says the 42-page lawsuit, which is accompanied by a request for a temporary restraining order that would allow the gyms to reopen.
The lawsuit is the latest in a series of legal efforts by pastors, political figures and gun advocates opposing the governor’s stay-at-home order and the California Highway Patrol’s subsequent ban on public demonstrations against the orders at the state Capitol and other public sites.
Those legal challenges have largely failed to date, with federal judges refusing to halt the governor’s imposition of the state’s COVID-19 restrictions.
The suit also comes as Newsom has begun to loosen restrictions on certain businesses affected by the original order.
Despite that, a series of large demonstrations against the stay-at-home order and the protest ban have occurred at the Capitol, and another is scheduled for May 23.
Covell, whose lawsuit alleges violations of various constitutional rights, including freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, has 5,900 gym members and has had 75 ask that their memberships be canceled since the shutdown occurred, the lawsuit says.
He had planned to reopen all three locations on May 1, but backed off that plan after Lodi police came to that fitness center and told employees that if the center opened Covell would be fined the first day and that if it opened a second day he “would be arrested,” the lawsuit says.
“It is a sad day for freedom,” he wrote to gym members in an email after that visit, and decided not to move forward with the opening.
Lodi police spokesman Jeff Hood denied Wednesday that officers ever threatened arrest, saying police delivered a copy of the county counsel’s letter saying reopening would violate a county health order issued April 14 and that the center “would be subject to fines if they chose to open, but no one was threatened with arrest.”
The suit targets Lodi officials, as well as San Joaquin County officials. Lodi police earlier halted a church not far from Covell’s gym from reopening, a move that also has generated a pending lawsuit.
Covell’s lawsuit notes that he has been allowed to sell health supplements curbside, but that business has been “virtually nonexistent” because potential customers “are fearful of police harassment if they visit the locations.”
This story was originally published May 13, 2020 at 10:24 AM.