Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani attorneys Michael Hanan and Jolene Sproviero obtained a decision from the Southern District of New York’s well-known Honorable John G. Koeltl, U.S.D.J., granting dismissal of a lawsuit alleging that a firm client-fitness center’s mask requirement during the COVID-19 pandemic, as mandated by New York state, violated the U.S. Constitution and federal statutes prohibiting discrimination.
The lawsuit alleged that the fitness club’s mask requirement, as ordered by New York state during the COVID-19 pandemic, violated plaintiff’s rights to speech, assembly, and religion under the First Amendment and constituted an illegal search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment. The plaintiff also argued that the mask mandate violated Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title III of Americans with Disabilities Act.
Judge Koeltl rejected plaintiff’s arguments, agreeing with the fitness club’s argument that it is a private entity and its abidance of the New York mask mandate was not state action. Since the fitness club’s mask requirement could not be deemed state action, the First Amendment did not apply to it. Judge Koeltl also agreed with the fitness club’s argument that the mask requirement did not constitute a search or seizure. Further, the allegation that the plaintiff was denied access from the fitness club due to his refusal to wear a mask, was insufficient for a discrimination claim under the Civil Rights Act or the ADA.