Beshear administration has case before judge, new UK dean whose appointment he bashed
Gov. Andy Beshear made pointed comments Tuesday and Wednesday criticizing the University of Kentucky for selecting U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove as the new dean of the law school.
But Beshear did not mention in his statements that he and his administration have been fighting a legal battle in Van Tatenhove’s court for years. Since 2022, members of his administration have been in court over a lawsuit filed by Andrew Cooperrider, a former political candidate and conservative influencer, over the revocation his liquor license for Brewed, his Lexington coffee and beer shop which has since closed.
Cooperrider’s lawsuit alleges Alcoholic Beverage Control officials took retaliatory action against him and his business after his unsuccessful push to have Beshear impeached in 2020. Cooperrider was a lightning rod during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, with Brewed getting dinged by state and local officials for not complying with restrictions meant to stem the spread of the virus.
A spokesperson for the governor told the Herald-Leader that Beshear’s remarks are not related to the case. In March, Van Tatenhove granted Beshear’s motion to be dismissed from the case, making him immune from Cooperrider’s claims.
“Not at all,” Scottie Ellis, spokesperson for Beshear, wrote when asked by the Herald-Leader if the governor’s statements were informed by the case.
“The governor has been treated fairly in that case and none of his comments have criticized Van Tatenhove’s service as a federal judge,” Ellis wrote.
Chris Wiest, a popular conservative figure in Kentucky politics and Cooperrider’s attorney in the matter, has a different view.
Though Van Tatenhove had granted Beshear himself immunity in the case, depositions of cabinet members like Ray Perry – who recently was moved from leading the Public Protection Cabinet to become the deputy secretary of Beshear’s executive cabinet – have been allowed to go forward. In a comment to the Herald-Leader, Wiest suggested Beshear was retaliating for that action.
“It is ironic that I’m handling a case about the governor retaliating against people, and he goes out while the case is pending, and members of his administration are a part of this case, and he retaliates yet again – this time against the judge. Andy is nothing if not consistently retaliatory,” Wiest said.
He added that, even if that weren’t the case, the governor shouldn’t denigrate a judge.
“I find the entire practice very troubling,” Wiest said. “Andy’s a lawyer. He shouldn’t be making comments about judges where he or his administration have cases pending. It’s a bad look.”
Wiest told the Herald-Leader he plans to appeal Van Tatenhove’s dismissal of Beshear in the case to the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The case has gone to that appeals court previously, and the judges partially reversed a prior decision from Van Tatenhove in order to let Cooperrider’s lawsuit continue on a limited basis. Wiest and Cooperrider framed that as a win.
In Beshear’s statement Tuesday, which sparked a back and forth between the governor and Republicans, he insinuated Van Tatenhove’s hiring and the creation of a nearly $1 million job for Director of Athletics Mitch Barnhart were “related to certain donors pushing partisan and undue outside influence onto the university.”
He did not name the donors, but Van Tatenhove has a documented relationship with Joe and Kelly Craft, two of the biggest UK donors and national GOP megadonors.
Several Republicans — including the state party, Secretary of State Michael Adams and House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect — have spoken out against Beshear and in favor of Van Tatenhove.
Inside the case
Cooperrider’s case against members of the Beshear administration dates back more than four years.
He claimed that state ABC officials did not have the authority to revoke Brewed’s liquor licenses on Nov. 25, 2020, for failing to comply with Beshear’s executive order requiring masks and restaurants to shut down for in-person dining. The suit was filed in early 2022.
Originally, Van Tatenhove ruled that Beshear and everyone Cooperrider sued had qualified immunity — a doctrine that prevents government officials from being sued in their official capacity — in the case.
The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that claim for Beshear, former Public Protection Cabinet Secretary Ray Perry and Cabinet for Health and Family Services General Counsel Wesley Duke. Those officials, according to the ruling, argued their actions were not retaliatory or were covered by qualified immunity.
The appeals court said under the First Amendment, the retaliation claims could proceed without ruling on them on the merits.
But it was not a total victory for Cooperrider and Wiest.
The panel of three judges — two appointed by former Democratic President Bill Clinton and another by GOP President Donald Trump during his first term — held that all involved remained immune from Cooperrider’s claim that they violated his due process rights in the revocation of his liquor license.
The case originated with a 2021 bill passed by the GOP-led state legislature meant to address Beshear’s COVID-19 executive orders.
The bill allowed a business to remain open if it adopted a plan that met or exceeded the recommendations put forth by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or by the state’s executive branch, whichever was the least restrictive.
The lawsuit alleged Brewed had such a plan which ABC knew about. As part of its two-year budget, the General Assembly also placed limitations on the executive branch enforcement efforts on Beshear’s previous executive orders, according to the original lawsuit.
To enforce a previous order, the executive branch was supposed to send information to the Legislative Research Commission detailing the facts of the violation and how much time it would take for state employees to enforce the action.
The Beshear administration did not provide that documentation to the legislative branch in the enforcement action against Cooperrider, the lawsuit alleges, and Brewed’s license was revoked.
Separately, in the Summer of 2023, Fayette Circuit Judge Thomas Travis ruled that the ABC board went too far when it permanently revoked Brewed’s license for failing to comply with Beshear’s executive order requiring masks and restaurants to shut down for in-person dining.
Cooperrider, who hosts a multi-media commentary show, has run unsuccessfully twice for elected office. He lost a 2022 GOP primary for a state Senate seat to Sen. Donald Douglas, R-Nicholasville, and lost in the 2023 primary for state Treasurer to Mark Metcalf.
This story was originally published April 23, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
