Lindsey Graham, who runs the Glamour Salon in Salem, Ore.
Court documents show that the owner of an Oregon salon was fined earlier this year after she reopened her business in opposition to the state’s home rule. Now, she has filed a civil rights lawsuit against Governor Kate Brown.
Lindsey Graham, who runs the Glamour Salon in downtown Salem, was fined $14,000 in May. Graham decided to reopen her business despite an executive order from Governor Brown that forced the salon and other businesses to close during the outbreak of the Chinese Communist virus (Wuhan pneumonia).
In a lawsuit filed Dec. 18 in Oregon’s Marion County Circuit Court, Graham said the governor’s decision to force private businesses to close has had a “negative health impact” on local residents.
Graham said, “The decision to close private businesses has resulted in Oregonians losing their jobs and the ability to support their families, which in turn has had a greater negative impact on Oregonians’ health in the form of increased stress, anxiety and depression.”
The salon owner is seeking $100,000 in damages as a result of the forced closure of her business and the $14,000 fine issued to her by the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), these court documents show.
“OSHA has finally decided to close the case and take the following penalty against me: I will be fined $14,000 for ‘operating a facility that is dangerous to employees,'” Graham said in a news release, according to KATU.
She continued, “We have a number of independent contract workers who choose to work here on their own.”
Graham had said in May that she decided to reopen the salon in order to pay her bills and support her family.
The salon owner said, “At this point, I think raising a family and paying the bills to keep my family afloat is more important than the risk of being shut down for a period of time.”
In court documents, Graham said Gov. Brown does not have the authority to shut down private businesses that can operate safely and do not affect public health.
In response, Graham’s attorney Ross Day said, “Graham followed proper health protocols, wiped down with antibacterial cleaners, cleaned the floors, made sure there were proper sanitation protocols for masks, and a number of other precautions to ensure that customers coming to the salon the next day would be safe.”
He added, “The actions of the defendant (governor) represent an abuse of power of the absolute worst kind that could be imagined.”
Brown issued an executive order on March 23 and declared a public health emergency to slow the spread of the Communist virus, forcing many businesses like the Glamour Salon to close.
On May 3, Graham announced in a semi-private Facebook post that she would reopen to serve clients six weeks after the governor ordered her to do so.
In July, Graham filed another lawsuit against the state of Oregon and Gov. Brown, alleging that OSHA’s $14,000 fine against her was “unlawful and inappropriate,” the Register-Guard reported.
Graham said, “Governor Brown sent OSHA to issue an improper and illegal $14,000 fine as an act of retaliation.”
An OSHA spokeswoman said earlier this year that the penalty reflects “the nature of the violation and the decision to penalize the employer for intentional violations.”
In an email to CNN, the spokeswoman wrote, “There is no question that her actions violated the governor’s executive order designed to protect workers and the public.”
In support of Graham, the GoFundMe website set up an account to raise money to pay the fines issued by the state of Oregon and to cover the cost of hiring her attorney to help her with her case. The account quickly garnered tens of thousands of dollars in donations. As of Dec. 24, the total amount raised was nearly $75,000.
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