Gov. Roy Cooper announced he is keeping the entire state in the more restrictive Phase 2 of his reopening plan on Tuesday, July 14.

According to Cooper’s original plan the state would have moved from Phase 2 to Phase 3 which would allow business to get back closer to normal on June 26.

But on June 24 Cooper announced that he was going to extend Phase 2 until July 17. Cooper also mandated that everyone in the state wear facemasks and that the facemask mandate be enforced by business owners not law enforcement.

Tuesday, July 14, Cooper announced that he was extended Phase 2 until August 7, but didn’t announce any new restrictions.

Cooper continually says that his decisions are based on “science, facts and data,” but two different judges in two different court cases have asked for the science, facts and data behind Cooper’s decisions and neither judge found the science, facts and data presented by the state convincing.

Federal District Court Judge James Dever, in the lawsuit claiming that Cooper closing churches and houses of worship violated their First Amendment rights, made fun of Cooper’s lack of science, facts and data in his decision ­– or made fun of Cooper as much as a federal judge can in a legal document.

Wake County Superior Court Judge James Gale, in the lawsuit over bowling alleys, was not quite so harsh in his ruling that opened bowling alleys, but he also decried the lack of science, facts and data to support taking away people’s livelihoods in one business and not in similar businesses.

Both judges ruled against Cooper, in a large part because while the plaintiffs had science, facts and data to support their cases, the state didn’t produce much to support its case.

Wake County Judge Gale was particularly critical of the deposition by Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Dr. Mandy Cohen, who recited a bunch of figures, but didn’t offer science, facts and data about why bowling alleys in particular should remain closed or why the reopening plan offered by bowling alleys would not provide sufficient protection for the population.