By Tyler Durden

As NYC’s first-in-the-US requirement that patrons prove their vaccination status to gain entry to everything from restaurant dining rooms to gyms takes effect, a handful of small business owners in the city are pushing back.

A group of small businesses on Staten Island, including Pasticceria Rocco, DeLuca’s Italian Restaurant and Staten Island Judo Jujitsu, are suing Mayor Bill de Blasio insisting that the city’s requirement for small businesses to check patron’s vaccination status is “unduly burdensome” for small businesses.

In the suit, which is Independent Restaurant Owners et al v. Bill de Blasio, the plaintiffs allege that COVID restrictions have “severely and irreparably damaged” their businesses and others throughout the city, which have been “struggling to bounce back” since Governor Andrew Cuomo lifted all limits in mid-June.

According to the suit, which was filed Tuesday in state court in Staten Island, the plaintiffs are seeking a court order blocking de Blasio’s new vaccination requirement, which went into effect Monday and applies to indoor restaurants, gyms and entertainment venues across NYC – the first city in the US to require ‘vaccination passes’ for entering pretty much any business that’s not a grocery store.

The businesses called the requirement “irrational” and questioned the efficacy of vaccines, saying it was “an uncontested fact that unvaccinated and vaccinated individuals can both contract Covid-19 and the so-called ‘Delta’ variant, further illustrating the arbitrariness of this executive order.”

Mayor de Blasio didn’t address the lawsuit during a briefing with reporters on Wednesday, but said he believes NYC is in “a solid legal position” to adopt the mandates.