Ohio judge upholds governor's ban on liquor sales after 10 pm at bars and restaurants in Ohio as a legal battle ensues during a re-spiking of the coronavirus pandemic.....By editor Kathy Wray Coleman of Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine (left)

By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor in chief. Coleman trained for 17 years as a reporter with the Call and Post Newspaper and is an investigative and political reporter with a background in legal and scientific reporting. She is also a former 15-year public school biology teacher.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.

COLUMBUS, Ohio- A Franklin County common pleas judge has upheld a new rule imposed by the Ohio Liquor Control Commission at the request of Gov Mike DeWine that requires that liquor sales at bars and restaurants in Ohio, practically all but over the counter liquor stores, which generally close by 11 pm in Ohio, stop selling liquor at 10 pm, a ruling that comes in response to a lawsuit filed Aug. 4 by a group of bar and restaurant establishments in the Columbus area.

Under the new rule, last call is at 10 pm, though bar and restaurant patrons can continue finishing their drinks until 11 pm.

Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Kim Brown denied the injunction request filed against DeWine and the liquor commission by lawyers for the bars and restaurants. 

Sources say it is just the beginning of a long legal fight over what authority government officials truly have during a pandemic over businesses and other establishments, and in general.

Pins Mechanical and 16-Bit Bar and Arcade, which has a location in Lakewood, a neighboring city to Cleveland, filed the lawsuit Tuesday in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas Court, a general division court in Ohio that sits in Columbus, the state's capital. 

A Democrat, Brown said in her ruling that the Ohio Liquor Control Commission has the authority to regulate the bars and restaurants and to determine operating hours, the argument offered by DeWine and state officials.  

But Judge Brown did not answer the question in her ruling of exactly how far the governor can arbitrarily extend his powers during a public health crisis, and whether DeWine's order, that has outright enraged some bar and restaurant owners in Ohio, is overreaching, and overly intrusive. 

Masks must also be worn in public in Ohio, DeWine has ordered.

Ultimately, a precedent setting lawsuit is expected in federal court to test the constitutionality of DeWine's actions regarding the limiting of liquor sales in establishments throughout the state, which took effect July 31, and the actions of the liquor commission, sources said, state officials arguing, without any true specifics, that they have a constitutional right to make-up laws as they please because of the magnitude of the virus.

And it is a federal court that will likely decide what if any constitutional question exists in the controversial dispute that will, no doubt, have far reaching implications, an appeals court likely to have the last word on the issue, legal pundits have said.

Franklin County is the largest of Ohio's 88 counties and includes Columbus, the state's largest city, Cleveland, which sits in Cuyahoga County, the second largest of Ohio's cities.

The liquor restrictions come at a time when bars and late night restaurants have become a problem in fighting the coronavirus and liquor sales have increased in Ohio and nationwide relative to the outbreak, which hit the U.S. in March.

According to data from the Ohio Department of Commerce Division of Liquor Control, more than 1,450,000 gallons of liquor were sold in March alone, a 26% increase from February.

On the national level, and according to market research by the Nielsen firm, liquor sales are up more than 55% across the country and beer has seen at least a 66% jump, wine sales increasing by more than 42 percent in comparison to this time last year. 

Earlier this year the governor issued an order temporarily prohibiting the sale of alcohol in six of Ohio's 88 counties to out-of state buyers and only to in-state buyers who display a valid Ohio driver's license, aggressive action taken in response to the coronavirus outbreak and an influx of buyers from Pennsylvania to Ohio, both states with a stay-at-home order at the time.

The impacted counties were Columbiana, Jefferson, Belmont, Trumbull, Mahoning and Astabula, all which border Pennsylvania.

A Republican and President Donald Trump ally, and a former U.S. senator and Ohio attorney general, DeWine said then that, "those who are coming in to buy liquor are creating a health hazard and that’s something we have to take action on."

Ohio has reported more than 96,000 confirmed cases and 3,596 deaths as the nation faces a re-spiking of the virus.

The deadly virus for which there is no vaccine has spread to all 50 states and Washington, D.C. and the nation has nearly 4.8 million reported cases and some 159,000 people dead,  worldwide figures showing that there are 18.8 million cases globally and roughly 706,000 deaths.

More than 55 million Americans remain out of work due to the crippling pandemic.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.