Legal wranglings over Pennsylvania's handling of the coronavirus continued Monday when state lawyers cautioned a federal judge that granting a request made by a Butler County business would harm public safety.

In December, North Country Brewing owner Robert McCafferty filed a lawsuit in the Western District of Pennsylvania against Gov. Tom Wolf and Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine, alleging their executive orders to close restaurants to help stop the spread of COVID-19 violated his constitutional rights to equal protection, due process and against the taking of property.

He asked the court to prevent the state from issuing future shutdowns. The case is ongoing and, on Monday, the state, represented by Chief Deputy Attorney General Karen Romano, argued that restaurants have to be treated differently in mitigation efforts because dining in at a restaurant creates significant dangers to the public's health.

McCafferty owns the North Country Brewing Co. in Slippery Rock and The Harmony Inn in Harmony. In his original lawsuit and again in a February court filing, he argues through his lawyer, Rebecca Black, that his business has been unfairly subjected to mandatory closure orders and restrictions that are not backed by evidence on how the virus spreads.

“None of the defendants' orders have been factually or legally supported, the orders were arbitrarily entered,” McCafferty argued in his February court filing, which asked a federal judge to prevent the state from issuing shutdown orders in the future.

He also argues that the state's data “has demonstrated that indoor dining restrictions have not decreased or mitigated the spread of (COVID-19).”

McCafferty claims that in the past year of closure orders, his businesses have been damaged by a loss of revenue, and that the court should prevent the state from making any further restriction orders, including limiting the permitted capacity in restaurants such as his.

But the state argued the orders are needed for safety, citing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data that found people who contracted the disease were twice as likely as to have reported dining at a restaurant in the 14 days before becoming ill.

The state continued: “The inconvenience and financial loss sustained by plaintiff is outweighed by the public's right not to be infected with a deadly virus. The potential injury to the public that would result from (stopping) the commonwealth's life-saving measures to stop the spread of a deadly and highly communicable disease outweighs plaintiff's right to proceed without caution.“

The case is ongoing, and the Western District of Pennsylvania District Judge Christy Criswell Wiegand has yet to make a decision.