N.Y. Strip Club Owner Sues Cuomo Over Business Closure

COMMACK, N.Y. — A Long Island strip club operator on Saturday filed a Civil Rights Act claim against the governor of New York over his executive orders to close down non-essential businesses during the pandemic. Sean McCarthy, who has run the Blush Gentleman's Club in Commack, N.Y. since 1997, said in his federal lawsuit that Gov. Andrew Cuomo's orders “constituted a breach of constitutional duty” and have caused him “immediate and irreparable harm and actual and undue hardship.” McCarthy, in his suit, said Blush can run safely with social distancing in place and “strict hygiene” by its dancers, but that Cuomo’s orders “do not even permit the attempt to do so.” According to the federal lawsuit, McCarthy was denied "the most effective way to continue [his] business and exercise [his] right to free speech," since some adult businesses have been screened for loans and grants from the Paycheck Protection Program. “In times of crises such as these, it is particularly discriminatory in that certain businesses will continue and others who deal with subjects the government does not favor… will be dealt the hand of business death, aces and eights." Blush, wedged between an Applebee’s and Burger King in Commack, has been closed since mid-March and, according to its website, will continue to be shuttered until Cuomo lifts his orders. Cuomo today said several regions of upstate New York are ready to restart economic activity by the end of the week. Other parts of the state, however, are not ready for the first of four reopening phases. Adult nightclubs, under his reopening plan, could open under the fourth phase.   Joe Murray, an attorney for McCarthy, said that “Gov. Cuomo is engaged in a huge overstep of executive power. He is infringing on people’s fundamental civil rights far beyond the least restrictive means allowable under the Constitution. “Someone should remind him he is the governor and not the king,” Murray told CBS. McCarthy is seeking at least $150,000 in damages along with attorney fees.