In this January file photo, North Country Brewery and Harmony Inn owner Bob McCafferty stands in the empty dining room of the Brewery's Main St. restaurant in Slippery Rock with his dog Finn.

This is an excerpt from a larger article that appears in Thursday’s Butler Eagle. Subscribe online or in print to read the full article.A federal judge denied a request from a Butler County businessman to stop the state’s COVID-19 mitigation orders.In December, North Country Brewing and Harmony Inn owner Robert McCafferty filed a lawsuit in the Western District of Pennsylvania against Gov. Tom Wolf and then-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.U.S. District Judge Christy Criswell Wiegand denied McCafferty’s request, known as a preliminary injunction, April 9. This does not put an end to the overall lawsuit. But McCafferty said for him this marks the end of the lawsuit because he filed the action with the hope that his injunction request would be accepted.In McCafferty’s injunction motion, he asked the court to prevent Wolf from declaring or enforcing the prohibition of indoor dining, or any other order that might pose greater restrictions on restaurants and other indoor dining businesses.

This is an excerpt from a larger article that appears in Thursday’s Butler Eagle. Subscribe online or in print to read the full article.