After a sustained campaign to open salons now from the Center for American Liberty and Professional Beauty Federation of California, including a lawsuit and a temporary restraining order request filed on the eve of an anticipated federal court ruling, California Governor Newsom cracks to the pressure and accelerates the opening of hair salons in California from “months away” to “today.”
RELATED: An Open Letter to Governor Newsom on Behalf of the Nail Industry
“California’s 500,000 licensed beauty professionals are ready to go back to work in spaces that are far more sanitary and safe than any retail or grocery store,” says Chief Executive Officer of the Center for American Liberty Harmeet K. Dhillon. “It took Newsom too long to be guided by science rather than politics on this issue.”
“It’s unfortunate for the tens of millions of Californians who depend upon the half million professionals we represent that it took a lawsuit, protests, petitions and national media attention to force Newsom to do the right thing in opening some salons back up,” says co-counsel Mark Geragos of Geragos & Geragos. “Newsom’s order is a good start, but it still irrationally leaves nail salons in limbo, defers to counties to complete onerous paperwork to satisfy the ever-shifting demands of the state, and continues to put licensed professionals at the whims of arbitrary standards imposed by the state and counties. These same professionals are allowed to operate safely in many other states without any evidence of increased public risk, and it’s time to open salons now.”
Over the past weekend, Newsom also announced that he was going to accelerate the opening of places of worship, another effort driven by the Center for American Liberty’s litigation.
