Judge rubber stamps medical tyranny in Washington State, approves $936,000 fine for small business owners who re-opened their restaurant in December 2020
By ljdevon // 2025-08-21
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  • A Washington state appeals court upheld a $936,000 fine against Stuffy’s II Restaurant for daring to serve indoor diners during Gov. Jay Inslee’s 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns, despite the owners proving financial hardship.
  • The court ruled that "potential harm" from COVID-19 justified the fine, even though no employees or customers tested positive—thereby exposing the fraudulent basis of pandemic tyranny.
  • The state’s Labor & Industries Department (L&I) classified each of the 52 days the restaurant operated as a "willful serious violation," imposing $18,000 fine per day—a predatory financial attack designed to bankrupt small business owners.
  • The court ignored the restaurant’s tax returns showing losses, dismissed their Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan as irrelevant, and demanded more financial records—a Kafkaesque demand from a system that already decided their guilt.
  • This ruling sets a terrifying precedent: Any business that defies arbitrary government edicts—even when those edicts lack scientific or legal justification—can be financially destroyed under the guise of "public health."

A restaurant’s act of defiance—punished with nearly $1 million in fines for the "crime" of feeding people

In late 2020, as Governor Jay Inslee’s draconian COVID-19 mandates shuttered businesses across Washington, Bud and Glenda Duling, owners of Stuffy’s II Restaurant, made a courageous stand. Facing financial ruin after 32 years in business, they reopened for indoor dining in December 2020, declaring on Facebook: "It has come down to the point where we shut our doors after today and call it quits… or we fight. We have made the decision over closing that we are fighting. If we go down, at least our employees will be able to have a better chance at having a better holiday season!" Their defiance was not born of recklessness, but practicality, rationality, and survival. The Dulings submitted tax returns proving losses, received a PPP loan, and argued that no COVID-19 cases were linked to their restaurant. Yet none of this mattered to Washington’s medical police state. The Department of Labor & Industries (L&I)—acting as Inslee’s enforcement arm—fined them $ 18,000 per day for 52 days of operation, totaling $936,000. The Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals refused to intervene, claiming it had no authority over "constitutional matters"—a cowardly abdication of justice. A superior court judge, Rebecca Glasgow, upheld the fine, writing: "Duling has not demonstrated that it is unable to pay the fine or that the fine is excessive… There is nothing in the record about what savings or assets Duling had." In other words: "Prove you’re destitute, or pay up." This was never about public health. It was about enforcing compliance—crushing dissent—and sending a message to every small business owner in America: Resist the regime, and we will destroy you.

The legal farce: How Washington’s courts twisted "safety" into a weapon of economic terrorism

The court’s reasoning was a masterclass in Orwellian doublespeak. Under Washington Industrial Safety and Health Act (WISHA), the L&I classified the restaurant’s defiance as a "willful serious violation"—not because anyone got sick, but because the state claimed there was a "risk" of COVID-19 transmission. Meanwhile, across the country, restaurants had been opened up for over half a year, especially in places like Florida. Judge Glasgow’s opinion hinged on three key distortions:
  • "Potential harm" is enough to justify financial ruin of that business.
  • The court did not require proof that anyone contracted COVID-19 at Stuffy’s II.
  • Instead, it asserted that the mere possibility of transmission was sufficient to uphold the fine.
  • This is the same flawed logic used to justify mask mandates, lockdowns, and vaccine passports—all of which lacked real-world evidence of efficacy.

The fine was "not excessive" because the legislature allows this kind of medical tyranny

The court deferred to the state’s penalty structure, which permits $5,000 to $70,000 per "willful violation." Since $18,000 per day fell within this range, the judges refused to question whether the fine was morally or economically justified. This is legal tyranny in action: If the state says it’s legal to fine you into oblivion, then it is.
  • In this act of fraud, the burden of proof is reversed, targeting the precedent of innocent until proven guilty.
  • In this fraud, the innocent were deemed inherently guilty until proven innocent.
  • The Dulings had to prove they couldn’t pay, rather than the state proving the fine was fair or necessary.
  • The court dismissed their tax returns as insufficient and ignored their PPP loan, demanding more financial records—a moving goalpost designed to exhaust them into compliance.
  • This is how bureaucratic tyranny operates: The system is rigged so that resistance is futile.
The most damning part in all this? The court admitted that the fine could put Stuffy’s II out of business—but claimed that was acceptable because their "violation" of reopening their business was "egregious." With this move, the court emboldens medical tyranny and reaffirms that the totalitarian measures taken during the COVID-19 scandal were perfectly normal. This case makes it clear: the people that screwed up the economy and destroyed people's lives ARE NOT SORRY. Sources include: Zerohedge.com Courts.WA.gov [PDF] Facebook.com
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