Orlando looks to knock down lawsuit filed by downtown bar owners

A makeover awaits downtown Orlando in 2023.

A group of downtown Orlando bars sued over Gov. Ron DeSantis’ COVID executive order that banned them from selling alcohol to patrons on the premises in the height of the pandemic.

The bars lost in court. Now, the city of Orlando is trying to use that ruling to its advantage as it defends itself from a federal lawsuit filed by other downtown bar owners angered over the city’s new late-night policies.

Local businesses don’t have a constitutional right to serve alcohol after midnight — late at night when the crime rate goes up — the city argued in court as it seeks to dismiss the lawsuit.

The owners of seven bars sued the city and Police Chief Eric Smith in September after Orlando passed a 2023 ordinance requiring bars pouring liquor after midnight to have a permit and pay for off-duty police officers.

The city filed its response to the lawsuit on Nov. 20 in U.S. District Court and included a link to an Orlando Sentinel news story about a Halloween 2024 shooting that left two people dead and six others injured downtown.

“Where those extended hours of alcohol sales are accompanied by significantly higher crime rates, the City has required operators to take certain safety precautions and contribute to the cost of extra-duty police officers to further its legitimate police-power purpose,” the city said in the court filing.

“Here, however, to pressure the City into reducing the costs associated with the ordinance, and to improperly shift the cost of policing the harm and danger they cause to the community to the taxpayers of the City, Plaintiffs make questionable constitutional arguments related to their perceived right to sell alcohol after midnight.”

The city also defended the new ordinance by saying, “The regulations enacted by the City bear directly on the government’s police-power to protect the general welfare.”

The owners of 64 North, The Patio, The Social, Celine, Aero, The Corner and The Beacham accused the government of overreaching with an unconstitutional ordinance and unfairly blaming their establishments for crime instead of looking at the root of the problem in a tourism destination.

“The Ordinance is arbitrary and irrational,” the bar owners said in a Dec. 11 court filing responding to the city’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit. “The ordinance imposes crushing financial burdens on Plaintiffs’ businesses — fees as high as $591,120 annually — while exempting similarly situated businesses, including large concert and sports venues.”

The bar owners also argued that violent crime had not been connected to their businesses, but incidents instead occurred at city-owned parking garages and by the courthouse.

As far as the city bringing up the COVID lawsuit, the bar owners contended, “Here, again, the decision hinges on emergency powers of the State, not present in this case.”

Downtown Orlando’s night scene is a compact few blocks located south of the Orange County Courthouse and north of the Dr. Phillips Center of the Performing Arts and City Hall. The area has undergone ebbs and flows in the downtown’s history, going from a resurgence to the latest period which has seen several longtime businesses close and community leaders raising more concerns following high-profile shootings. Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer has proposed investments to help create a more pedestrian and family-friendly downtown.