Judge Issues Injunction Against LA County; Never Mind

Last week I covered Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James Chalfant's instruction to the Los Angeles County health department to return to his courtroom December 8 to provide actual research on the reasons to ban outdoor dining as a COVID lockdown measure. On Tuesday, this didn't go well for the county.

The judge had little sympathy for the county's arguments and sided with the [plaintff, the California Restaurant Association]. At one point, Chalfant said the county's arguments about being unable to confirm a link between outdoor dining and coronavirus might have flown early in the pandemic but not anymore.

"I am shocked that in nine months, [government officials] have not looked seriously at outdoor dining," Chalfant said. "I am not laying this at the county's feet but that is a failure of government."

. . . Attorneys for the plaintiffs claimed the outdoor dining ban would do little or nothing to stop the rising tide of coronavirus cases. [Plaintiff Mark] Geragos called the outdoor dining ban "feel-good political theater."

Judge Chalfant appeared to agree with that sentiment. At one point, he told L.A. County's attorney, "You want to look like you're doing something so you're restricting outdoor dining."

However, the injunction applies only to an LA County ban on outdoor dining, which was imposed independently by the county not long before Gov Newsom imposed a set of regional bans based on hospital ICU caoacity, which I covered in part yesterday. This in turn sets up an entirely new set of restrictions that overlays a still-in-effect set of color-coded restrictions imposed on counties based on COVID statistics.

The practical effect is that, although the injunction applies to the county's ban on outdoor dining, the separate state ban on the same thing is still in effect.

A different situation was resolved by going through political channels to get Gov Newsom to revise a decree.

Democrat California Governor Gavin Newsom reversed course on closing playgrounds because of the coronavirus after citizens and even his left-wing colleagues and supporters called foul on depriving children of the opportunity to play outdoors.

. . . “According to the state’s updated guidance, playgrounds located at schools that remain open for in-person instruction, that are not accessible by the general public, may also remain open, as long as they follow state guidance for schools and school-based programs,” Fox reported.

It sounds as though the modification to Newsom's order was very, very narrowly tailored to accommodate the particlar situation of a crony or small group of cronies. As we saw last week, apparently a favored TV producer was able to set up outdoor catering at a film location right next to a restaurant whose outdoor dining had been closed by the governor's order.

What we've seen in places like California is that an intricate and multi-layered set of extra-legislative, and increasingly extra-judicial, controls has sprouted up with remarkable speed. Although some remedies seem to be on the horizon, it isn't going to be an easy matter to clear this up. And a vaccine isn't going to solve a thing.