Cuomo must respond to Long Island strip club seeking to open amid coronavirus, judge says

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration has to respond by early June to a federal lawsuit by a Long Island strip club that has sought to reopen amid the coronavirus outbreak, a judge ruled Friday.

The owner of Blush Gentleman’s Club in Suffolk County has sought a temporary restraining order from Cuomo’s executive orders that forced his establishment and other non-essential businesses across the state to shut during the outbreak.

The restraining order would allow the club to reopen “immediately” if granted, according to the suit. A judge in the Eastern District of New York ordered the governor to respond by June 11.

The club owner, Sean McCarthy, is suing Cuomo and the US Small Business Administration for, respectively, forcing him to close during the coronavirus outbreak and then denying him a loan from the federal Paycheck Protection Program.

In an amended complaint filed this week, McCarthy added claims to his original suit that Cuomo’s executive orders violated the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment in the US Constitution, and that the executive orders were an illegal transfer of power from the state legislature to the governor’s office.

McCarthy’s lawyer, Joe Murray, said Cuomo’s executive orders were a blatant overreach.

“The legislature wrongfully transferred their legislative powers to the governor, which is against Article 4, Section 4 of the US Constitution and Article 3 Section 10 of the NY state constitution,” Murray asserted.

“The changes transformed him from governor to king,” he added.

The suit also targets the federal government and the SBA for denying businesses such as Blush a Payment Protection Program loan because they offer live performances that are sexual in nature.

McCarthy has owned Blush, in Commack, since 1997, according to the suit. He’s described in court papers as a humble man who once risked his life to work with federal agents in an operation to arrest members of the Pagans motorcycle gang.

He’s seeking a jury trial for the claims outlined in the suit.