D.C.’s liquor board said Tuesday that it will investigate a Northeast Washington bar repeatedly fined for violating the city’s vaccine and mask regulations as conservatives defended the business.

       The Big Board, a bar and restaurant in the District’s H Street corridor, received two $1,000 citations as well as written and verbal warnings for alleged unmasked employees and not checking customers’ vaccine status, according to a D.C. Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration (ABRA) list of citations posted Tuesday. A city mandate requiring that bar patrons show proof they have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine went into effect Jan. 15.

       Wp Get the full experience.Choose your plan ArrowRight

       D.C.’s coronavirus vaccination requirement: What you need to know

       The ABRA list indicated that a “case will be drafted” regarding the Big Board for review by the city’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, which meets once a week to enforce the city’s alcoholic beverage laws.

       Advertisement

       Story continues below advertisement

       “The term ‘case will be drafted for ABC Board review’ means that an investigative report is being drafted for submission to the ABC Board for appropriate enforcement action,” agency spokesman Jared Powell said in an email. The discussion of the case, to be held Wednesday, will not be open to the public, Powell said.

       The Big Board’s management did not respond to requests for comment. On Jan. 13 — two days before the city’s vaccine mandate began — the bar tweeted: “As has always been the case for us, everyone is welcome. This rule applies yesterday, today and tomorrow.”

       Another tweet posted that same day — “There comes a time in the life of every human when he or she must decide to risk ‘his life, his fortune, and his sacred honor’ on an outcome dubious” — appeared to reference a book by science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein, known for “his personal philosophy grounded in absolute freedom, individual responsibility and an almost religiously inflected patriotism,” in the words of one Washington Post book reviewer.

       Advertisement

       Story continues below advertisement

       As thousands of anti-vaccine mandate protesters gathered in D.C. this past weekend, the Big Board again tweeted that “all are welcome.”

       “We understand that not everybody agrees with this message and we fully support your right to hold and express that opinion,” the bar tweeted.

       D.C. is requiring vaccines to enter restaurants and gyms. In most of its suburbs, it’s a very different story.

       As the Washingtonian first reported, conservatives have rallied to defend the Big Board. A crowdfunding campaign begun by Henry Rodgers, a reporter for the conservative Daily Caller, had raised nearly $13,000 for the bar by Tuesday afternoon.

       “Donate money to Big Board, fighting against vaccine mandates in Washington DC, a place where no one else will stand up to the tyranny,” the campaign description read. Rodgers did not return requests for comment.

       Story continues below advertisement

       Rep. Chip Roy (R-Tex.), who says he refuses to show a vaccine card to get restaurant service, also mentioned the Big Board on Fox News last week, decrying “bureaucrats” trying to “shut these places down.”

       Advertisement

       “They’re making it harder to get a burger in Washington, D.C. — harder to get a burger in your nation’s capital — than it is to get carjacked,” he said.

       Bars and restaurants like Big Board have little legal ground to stand on in their defiance of the new city rules requiring patrons to be vaccinated, public health experts say.

       The Big Board owners could threaten to sue or fight the mandate in court, but they are not likely to prevail, said Lawrence Gostin, a professor at Georgetown University who specializes in public health law. “They would likely be laughed out of court. Cities and states have very broad authority in areas like this,” he said.

       Story continues below advertisement

       While vaccine mandates have faced legal defeats in recent weeks at the federal level by the U.S. Supreme Court, city and state officials have much broader, established authority to uphold such mandates, according to Gostin: “Courts have upheld almost all public health powers that have been challenged at the city and state level.”

       Advertisement

       Compared with other cities, Washington has come a bit late to the party in instituting a vaccine mandate. New York enacted a vaccine mandate in August for restaurants, movie theaters and gyms. San Francisco followed soon after. And in recent weeks, with the specter of the omicron variant, several other major cities have enacted their own versions.

       But better late than never, Gostin said: “D.C. should have done it much earlier.”