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Ruling temporarily allows indoor dining in Erie County

Mike Desmond/WBFO News

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) Some Erie County restaurants that had filed a lawsuit against New York state over a coronavirus restriction that bans indoor dining got a preliminary injunction on Wednesday against it being enforced.

State Supreme Court Justice Henry Nowak ruled the restaurants could go back to the limited indoor dining rules that went into effect when Gov. Andrew Cuomo designated the county as a “yellow zone" in terms of virus spread, instead of the stricter “orange zone" rules that forbid indoor service.

Nowak said he could not “find evidence that the state had a rational basis to designate portions of Erie County as an orange zone" and that the restaurants would suffer “irreparable harm" without the injunction.

The governor's office said the ruling was being reviewed.

The parties will have to go back to court to determine if the injunction will become permanent.

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