An attorney representing Butler County and a number of other plaintiffs wants a federal court to see a settlement agreement between the state Department of Health and the organizers of a large car show held in Cumberland County in June.

In a motion Friday, Tom King, of the firm Dillon McCandless King Coulter & Graham, asked U.S. District Judge William Stickman IV to order the settlement be produced.

The latest motion comes in a federal lawsuit brought by Butler and three other counties, four Republican lawmakers and several small businesses against Gov. Tom Wolf and state Heath Secretary Rachel Levine.

The suit challenges Wolf's business shutdown and stay-at-home orders over the coronavirus pandemic, and claims the governor violated certain constitutional rights.

Wolf countered that his executive orders were appropriate, citing the Pennsylvania's emergency management law that grants him broad powers to deal with a health crisis or disaster.

King wants the court to take judicial notice of the settlement agreement, which came up during testimony by Sam Robinson, Wolf's deputy chief of staff, at a July 22 hearing.

“Mr. Robinson testified in our hearing that thousands of people attended the Carlisle car show, and the public reports of the car show verify that,” King said Sunday. “No attempt was made by the secretary to stop that.

“We believe that the settlement agreement permitted thousands of people to attend the car show when other similar events across the commonwealth were prohibited from taking place.”

The settlement came after the Health Department on June 17 sought an injunction in Commonwealth Court to force Carlisle Events, the car show organizers, to comply with the limit of 250 people as part of the state's ongoing reopening plan.

But attorneys for the organization argued the car show was in compliance with the state's COVID-19 restrictions and that it was moving forward on holding the event at the 82-acre Carlisle Fairgrounds.

The four-day event June 17 to 20 typically attracts up to 100,000 people, although organizers conceded at the time that they expected crowds to be smaller this year.

The legal dispute was eventually resolved and a settlement reached that allowed the car show to be held.

The Health Department released a statement on June 19 following the agreement.

“We are pleased to have worked with Carlisle Events to improve its efforts to protect Spring Carlisle vendors and patrons and the public from COVID-19,” the statement, in part, said. “As a result of those efforts the Department and Carlisle Events have resolved the current litigation.”

Details of the settlement, however, were not provided.

The defendants' lead attorney, Karen Romano, chief deputy attorney general, could not be reached for comment this weekend.

At last month's hearing, Robinson testified that he was not involved in the Commonwealth Court case, and that he had no knowledge of the settlement agreement details.

“There were specific stipulations and agreements as to what had to take place in the context of the car show in order for it the proceed,” Robinson said. “But pursuant to those stipulations in the settlement, it did proceed.”

King noted in his motion Friday that the plaintiffs had filed a Right to Know Request with the governor's office and Health Department for a copy of the settlement, but they have not obtained it.

The plaintiffs said they also tried to secure a copy of the agreement through the attorneys for Carlisle Events, but to no avail.

According to the Carlisle Events website, King wrote, its events at the Carlisle Fairgrounds continue “in violation of Defendants' congregate limits and with the knowledge and apparent consent of Defendants.”

Those actions, King argued, are evidence that his clients' constitutional equal protection and free speech rights have been violated.

“That Defendants' action in permitting commercial speech and preferring it to political speech is concrete evidence of violations of Constitutional Rights ... of the Candidate-Plaintiffs in this case. It also evidences discrimination as regards to other commercial events, such as golf tournaments and county fairs, testified to by the County Commissioners.”

At a July 16 hearing in the federal case, several candidates, including U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-16th, and state Rep. Marci Mustello, R-11th, testified that the restrictions of 25 people at indoor gatherings and 250 at outdoor gatherings made it difficult if not impossible to conduct fundraisers or rallies.

County commissioners also testified that because of restrictions in place at the time, county fairs and other events, including a golf tournament, had to be canceled.

The plaintiffs, who are not seeking monetary damages, have asked for a declaratory judgment in the federal lawsuit. Stickman previously granted an expedited hearing on some of their claims.