Judge tosses auto racing suit

N.Y.’S measures barring fans from venues amid pandemic deemed legal

A federal judge threw out a lawsuit filed jointly by five racetracks across New York that claimed Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s executive order barring spectators at the motor-sports venues to slow the spread of the coronavirus violated several constitutional protections.

In a decision released Tuesday in Albany, U.S. District Court Senior Judge Lawrence E. Kahn rejected the complaint’s constitutional grounds and dismissed the request for a temporary restraining order that would have allowed the tracks to welcome spectators. The plaintiffs were Airborne Speedway in Plattsburgh, Albany-saratoga Speedway in Malta, Fonda Speedway in Fonda, Genesee Speedway in Batavia and Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon.

The lawsuit’s claims included an allegation of a First Amendment violation for infringement on the right to assemble. Noting that the right to assemble, like freedom of speech, is not unlimited, Kahn cited a 1905 U.S. Supreme Court case centered on a smallpox outbreak in Massachusetts. He wrote that the Supreme Court’s ruling required lower courts to “afford politically accountable officials significant discretion in striking the appropriate balance during pandemics.”

Kahn further rejected the lawsuit’s comparison of track spectators to “demonstrators” and “rioters” at protests nationwide in recent months, who generally were not subjected to states’ restrictions on the size of gatherings. Kahn wrote: “The court does not find the requisite rough equivalence between private, capacity-limited sports venues on one hand and attendees of public protests on the other.”

The judge also held that a temporary prohibition of spectators, while “undoubtedly hurting” the venues financially, did not destroy the properties’ value, which would have violated the governmental “takings” clause of the Fifth Amendment.

“In sum,” Kahn wrote, “despite the impact of the state action on the auto-racing industry, plaintiffs have failed to state a plausible claim for relief.”