The fight over whether a Stearns County bar can reopen moved from the streets to the courtroom on Friday.
Unlike earlier this week, there were no beer-drinking, flag-waving patrons on hand to support Shady's Hometown Tavern and its owner's desire to reopen as quickly as possible during the COVID-19 pandemic, despite Gov. Tim Walz's order that bars and restaurants not offer on-premise drinking or dining until June 1.
Instead, lawyers presented arguments via videoconference to Stearns County District Judge Shan Wang, who didn't rule on the case Friday but promised to make a decision "sooner rather than later."
Kris Schiffler, owner of Shady's in Albany, Minn., and five other cities, had vowed last week to reopen in defiance of the governor's order. On Monday, Attorney General Keith Ellison's office went to court and got a temporary restraining order preventing the opening.
As a crowd of several hundred supporters gathered outside the Albany bar Monday, Schiffler told them that he wouldn't defy the order on the advice of his lawyer. But on Friday, his lawyer called Walz's order unfair and unconstitutional, urging the judge to let Shady's open.
"My clients don't have any disrespect for Gov. Walz," said St. Cloud attorney Gary Leistico, representing Shady's. Leistico said bars and restaurants in outstate Minnesota are often the only place people have to meet and said that other states have "leapfrogged" over Minnesota on reopening.
"You can go to a bar or restaurant in Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska," Leistico said. "In the Midwest, Minnesota is the standalone."
Leistico said that 49 states once had restrictions on bars and restaurants, but that only 13 do now.