10 p.m. curfew temporarily lifted for 91 restaurants who sued New York state

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Ninety-one restaurants who filed a lawsuit against the state over a 10 p.m. curfew will be able to stay open later, for the time being.

A temporary restraining order has been issued Friday morning, lifting the curfew for those who were part of the lawsuit.

Attorneys will provide more details on this later today at 1 p.m.

MORE | Read the lawsuit here.

The 10 p.m. curfew has been in effect across New York state since November 11, 2020.

A few weeks ago, a similar ruling allowed restaurants on a lawsuit, operating in a COVID-19 orange zone, to operate under yellow zone restrictions. Following that ruling, New York stat altered the COVID-19 guidance for all orange zone restaurants to operate under yellow zone rules, not just the businesses who sued, to “ensure fairness.”

COVID-19 zone restrictions have since been lifted in Upstate New York. On the day those zone restrictions were lifted, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the state was looking into the 10 p.m. curfew rule, but wasn’t going to lift it at that time.

During Friday’s coronavirus briefing, the governor said the state would not apply a universal lift of the curfew before Sunday’s Super Bow game.

“The curfew is complicated,” Gov. Cuomo said. “In this state, we don’t have difference licenses for restaurants and bars. For many states, bars are separate from restaurants. If we could distinguish between the two then we could have separate times for restaurants or bars. We cannot so the curfew is because when people tend to stay later and they’re just drinking ten they’re more gatherings, you can’t drink and wear a mask. That’s the point of the curfew, and no we’re not thinking of changing the curfew for Super Bowl Sunday.”

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