Columbus, OH – On Thursday, The Buckeye Institute filed a motion with the District of Columbia’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Board (ABC Board) demanding that it immediately lift the summary suspension of The Big Board’s liquor license. The Buckeye Institute is representing Eric Flannery, a Navy veteran and co-owner of The Big Board, which is a neighborhood bar located in our nation’s capital, in Mr. Flannery’s case against the District of Columbia.

“It has been clear from the outset that Mr. Flannery and his restaurant The Big Board have been targeted not simply for refusing to enforce D.C.’s Covid mandates as many others have done, but rather because he publicly announced as much,” said Robert Alt, president and chief executive officer of The Buckeye Institute and the lawyer representing Mr. Flannery. “Even now—after D.C. lifted its vaccination requirement on February 15, and with the mask requirement ending next week—Mr. Flannery’s business remains closed by order of the city. This nonsense needs to end so that Mr. Flannery and his employees can get back to work.”

In addition to the motion filed with the ABC Board, The Buckeye Institute sent a demand letter to the District of Columbia’s Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) on February 18 insisting that the suspension of Mr. Flannery’s operating license be reversed and that Mr. Flannery be allowed to re-open his bar and restaurant immediately.

The District of Columbia suspended Mr. Flannery’s liquor and operating licenses because he welcomed all customers regardless of vaccination status and refused to enforce the city’s mask mandates that allow guests seated and drinking on one side of the bar to forgo masks while employees standing on the other side of the same bar must wear masks. Ironically, Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced the end of D.C.’s mandates on the same day D.C. issued an order sustaining the suspension of Mr. Flannery’s licenses.

Buckeye’s co-counsel in this case are Patrick Strawbridge and David L. Rosenthal at Consovoy McCarthy PLLC.

More of Mr. Flannery’s story is told in this seven-minute-long video:

# # #