Reflecting Industry Frustrations, NY Athletic Club Files Suit Challenging Pandemic Executive Orders

An athletic club in central New York is suing the state over coronavirus-triggered mandates that forced their gyms to close.

The Aspen Athletic Club filed the lawsuit in a state court last week, arguing that Gov. Andrew Cuomo did not provide any procedural due process before issuing lockdown orders. 

The athletic club operates four gyms throughout Onondaga County and employs 160 county residents, according to the lawsuit. Since mid-March and the lawsuit’s filing, the club has been forced to close the fitness facilities due to executive orders from Cuomo, who is listed as a defendant in the suit, according to the litigation.

Central New York is in the final phase of New York’s reopening plan, however gyms are not listed among the businesses allowed to reopen. The phase does allow for the reopening of higher education, “low-risk” indoor arts and entertainment and professional sports with no fans, among other activities.

As the intensity of the coronavirus crisis has waned in New York, state officials have allowed certain industries to reopen by region.

The athletic club’s lawsuit reflects boiling frustrations from businesses not yet allowed to reopen in New York, but burdened with months of closures and a down economy.

The athletic club owes nearly $400,000 in back rent and 1,400 people have cancelled their memberships, according to the lawsuit filed last week. The business cannot afford to stay closed, according to the lawsuit, which said the club can provide its service in a sanitary and socially distanced environment. 

The litigation is one in a string of lawsuits over New York’s various coronavirus-induced restrictions. 

The lawsuit also noted Cuomo’s comments about demonstrators who had gathered in large crowds to protest the killing of Black Americans by police. The Democrat has expressed support for the demonstrations.

“The only conclusion you draw from that is that thousands of people can march together throughout the State and there is no public health issue for marches, but someone who wants to open their gym with CDC safety guidelines is endangering the public,” the lawsuit reads. 

“There is either a public health emergency or there’s not. It cannot be both,” the lawsuit says.

The litigation cites the Fourteenth Amendment and says the executive orders deprived the athletic club of equal protection of the law.

“In short, [the athletic club] brings this lawsuit to define the limits of a State’s police power,” according to the lawsuit.