Massachusetts Republican Gov. Charlie Baker applied the wrong law and illegally picked “winners and losers” when he shut down certain businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, the state’s top court was told Tuesday by a group seeking to invalidate the emergency orders.

The New Civil Liberties Alliance — suing on behalf of two hair salons, a tanning salon and boxing gym, two restaurants, two houses of worship, the headmaster of a religious school and an entertainment and conference center — told the Supreme Judicial Court that the crisis “does not empower the governor to make law or dispense with law as he sees fit.”

Published in Law360