Posted on 05/26/2020 1:04:50 AM PDT by Impala64ssa
Attorney General Keith Ellison announced Sunday night that his office has sued a Minnesota restaurant owner who planned to reopen for business Monday.
Kris Schiffler, owner of Shady’s Bar and Grill, planned on reopening his six locations for dine-in business Monday, two weeks earlier than the June 1 reopening date set by the state. He told one local outlet that he received a call from Ellison’s office Friday threatening $25,000 in fines per location, which would amount to $150,000 in total.
Ellison’s office said it will continue to investigate other bars, restaurants, and taverns that threaten to “illegally reopen for on-premises consumption.”
“I can end up broke and on the street, just like 163 employees of mine are going to do the same thing in a little bit here if we don’t get operating,” Schiffler told WCCO.
The House Republican Caucus sent a letter to Ellison Sunday warning that the “rural Minnesota economy is on the verge of collapse due to the numerous executive orders issued by Governor Walz.”
“It has come to our attention that the Attorney General’s Office is contacting these businesses and threatening them with a fine, which could be up to $25,000 per violation, if these business owners have the audacity to try and earn a living,” said the letter. “We would like to think the Attorney General’s office has better things to do than to financially punish people who have gone without a paycheck for nearly two months.”
A few hours later, Ellison’s office announced that it filed an enforcement action against Schiffler and his chain of restaurants because he has “repeatedly publicly represented his intention to violate Executive Order 20-56 by reopening the restaurants for on-premises consumption before June 1.”
“A handful of bar and restaurant owners have said they don’t want to wait any longer and want to reopen illegally. Over the past several days, my office has reached out to them to try to educate them on their rights and responsibilities under the law and the risks to Minnesotans’ health of reopening illegally. In almost all cases, owners have agreed to comply with the law. I thank them for complying,” Ellison said in a press release.
“The owner of Shady’s, however, has declared his intention to break the law and endanger his customers and employees – in Stearns County, with the second-highest number of COVID-19 cases in Minnesota. My office has the duty to enforce the law and the Governor’s order, to protect Minnesotans’ health, and to protect businesses that are complying with the order from unfair competition. I take that duty seriously,” he continued.
The lawsuit asks the courts to prevent Schiffler from reopening early and allow the Attorney General’s Office to seek civil penalties and restitution for violations. Ellison said the lawsuit marks the first enforcement action brought by his office to “prevent the premature restart of on-site consumption.”
A GoFundMe page was created for Schiffler and had raised more than $200,000 as of Monday afternoon.
Schiffler spoke to a crowd of supporters Monday outside his Albany location and said his lawyers advised him not to defy Ellison’s demands.
“The attorney general has just called and they have shut us down,” he said. “Our attorney has advised us to not open the doors.”
Islam is a war plan.
They keep using the words *illegally* and *break the law *.
Was there some legislation that was passed into law that prohibits them from opening?
Or are these folks simple defying some demagogue’s power trip dictates cloaked as *executive orders*?
Liberalism is the AIDS that fatally weakens Western Civilization and Islam is the opportunistic infection that actually kills civilization off.
[8r
I am sure that’s it. 😁 Maybe the guy should invite Ellison down there alone to tell him. I don’t think Ellison has the stones. 👊
Ellison is not only a Moslem extremist, he is also a white-hater and Marxist. The people of Minnesota should be ashamed of themselves for what they allowed the new “Marxist/Moslem Alliance” to do to their state.
Minneapolis should be nuked from space just on general principles that a Sodom & Gomorrah should not be allowed to exist in America today. It might look like a nice place to live and work, but its Marxist domineering political machine of opportunist Democrats and Marxists posing as Democrats should have been enough to have sane liberals and conservatives clean house. The Left knew how to organize and seize power. The Conservatives didn’t.
Albany (population about 3,000) is about 20 miles from St. Cloud. St. Cloud had a high number of cases iirc from one of the cruise ships way early in this whole thing. I’m not sure, but I imagine most of those were probably quarantined early on. I would bet the cases for that area have been pretty low for the past several weeks.
Still amazes me that Minnesota handily elected this muslim girlfriend beater to the highest law-enforcement position in the state. Wokeness at any price, I guess.
minnesota....beautiful farms and lakes...and apparently the stupidest people who vote for black islamists...
Minnesotans are poster children for getting the government you deserve. If this lockdown debacle isn’t a wake-up call for blue state voters to kick out the power hungry incompetents they can suffer while I laugh.
“The Left knew how to organize and seize power. The Conservatives didn’t.”
We continue to refuse to learn.
Just a precursor to end times . . . America has turned its back on God . . . our hedge of protection is being lifted. We have people in leadership that are exercising a Pharaoh spirit. “Let My People Go” should be the motto for those who stand for freedom.
Americas enemies have been within our gates for many years waiting for moments like this
Wow...and here we go. Not only is it the state government but a muslim operative leading the charge.
Folks, this is how islam works. It gets into government and starts to change it slowly. This country is in real trouble folks.
JoMa
So somehow if he opens tomorrow it’ll be deadly and put All these lives at risk, but in two weeks suddenly become safe? Do you anyone with more than a couple brain cells to rub together, it is plain as can be that it is no longer about health and simply about control.
> Was there some legislation that was passed into law that prohibits them from opening? <
And was there some legislation that set those high-dollar fines? Or is Ellison just making those numbers up out of thin air?
On a Koran. Speaks volumes after 9/11.
The restaurant owners should proceed and get others to join them. Freedom is at stake.
And I hope and pray that the Supremes will settle this in a manner consistent with the Constitution.
A Koran after 9/11...once unthinkable.
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