A central Texas man who says he has a right to hang out in bars and go tubing on Texas rivers tried to plead his case to the state Supreme Court.
In a self-written lawsuit, complete with references and improper punctuation, Rory Smith wants his rights upheld.
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Smith doesn’t say where in Travis County he lives, but he lets it be known he was born in Texas and declares his rights to gather with friends, go tubing down rivers, and to "hang" in bars, have been trampled on by Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
Governor Abbott ordered all bars in the state to close for the second time as Texas struggled with a record resurgence in coronavirus cases, following an attempt to reopen.
Smith never took this to a trial court, he went straight to the Texas Supreme Court where he declares, “Texas has a governor, not a king."
The State Supreme Court tossed out the complaint without comment.
Several Texas bar owners filed a $10 million federal lawsuit in June. The owners are all part of the Texas Bar and Nightclub Association (TBNA), which has also sued the state over Abbott's coronavirus restrictions, shutting bars across the state to combat the spread of COVID-19.
"In light of Greg Abbott's irresponsible and shameful actions that shutter the businesses that provide a livelihood for your families and employees, we support our members in the Constitutional right to protest by keeping your businesses open," the association said in a press release.
In addition to damages, the lawsuit asks the court to stop the Governor from enforcing executive order which closes bars and to prevent him from issuing similar orders in the future without proper notice, according to the Texas Tribune.
The suit said Abbott should give businesses more than 24 hours notice before shutting them down, "unless in the case of imminent threat of harm."
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