BENTON – U.S. District Judge Staci Yandle must decide whether H’s Bar on West Main in Belleville may assert First Amendment rights of its patrons.
She sounded skeptical at a hearing on a motion for injunction against lockdown enforcers on Nov. 13, but made no ruling.
She told H’s Bar counsel Thomas Maag, “There is some value to creative advocacy sometimes but I’m not seeing it here.”
Maag sued Illinois liquor and gambling regulators on Oct. 30, seeking to reopen H’s Bar so patrons could discuss issues of the day.
He also sued the St. Clair County sheriff’s office and the county health department.
“This is America,” he argued in the suit. “It is not North Korea.”
“Taverns and bars are where Americans for over 200 years have gone to plan protests, wars, and uprising, to plot, argue and discuss events of the day.
“They are for all practical purposes the real soapboxes of America and the successor to the Roman forum.”
He wrote that without an injunction, owner Matthew Hamann would have to go to bankruptcy court and sell the bar to creditors.
At the hearing, Yandle said an injunction requires a demonstration of a likelihood of success on the merits.
She said the issue of standing was foremost, and she asked Maag to clarify the First Amendment right of the bar.
He said the right belongs to many individuals, the plaintiff itself and those who won’t have a forum. He said it was similar to an abortion clinic challenging an anti abortion law.
Yandle said, “That’s not a First Amendment issue though.”
She said the Fourteenth Amendment protects First Amendment freedom only if persons gather to exercise rights.
Maag said that signs in front of the bar were critical of the governor and patrons discussed political issues.
“Issues of the day could be interpreted one way or the other,” Maag said.
“I could amend to go into great detail, all the political comments that are made.
“It doesn’t need to be organized by a political party or some nonprofit group.”
Yandle asked if he agreed that his client had no standing to assert rights on behalf of patrons.
Maag said, “I would not agree it’s a nonexistent right.”
He said if patrons sued, their standing could be challenged.
Yandle asked about the relationship between lockdowns orders and their purpose.
Maag called the orders overbearing and overbroad.
Assistant attorney general Kristina Dion said, “The governor’s orders are narrowly tailored.”
She said restaurants and bars have been linked to the virus.
“We’re not saying you can’t go anywhere,” Dion said.
She said the governor is not a party to the motion.
Yandle asked Maag if the governor is a necessary party.
Maag said his clients aren’t concerned about the governor coming down to H’s Bar to enforce his orders.
He said the sheriff arrived twice.
She said she’d issue an order in the next seven days.