SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The state Supreme Court is weighing a challenge to New Mexico's pandemic-related ban on indoor dining, in the latest legal showdown between restive business owners and Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

Court arguments were scheduled Wednesday afternoon. The Supreme Court recently upheld the state's authority to levy hefty, $5,000 daily fines against businesses that flout health orders linked to the coronavirus.

New Mexico is among a handful of states including California and New Jersey that currently prohibit indoor dining as a temporary safeguard against the spread of COVID-19.

Lujan Grisham's administration suspended in mid-July its reopening of the economy — and put a halt to indoor restaurant dining — amid a wave of COVID-19 infections and deaths that has relented in recent weeks.

Attorneys for the restaurant industry assert that state health official are invoking science as the basis of the ban without sharing specific scientific findings or deliberations.

“The state’s ‘science’ alleged to support the devastating decision to prohibit indoor dining is undisclosed, unreviewed, and without checks,” attorneys for restaurants said in a briefing Monday.

In support of the restriction, health officials are citing medical journals, outbreaks traced to restaurants by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local infections that trigger “rapid response” testing and contact tracing in New Mexico. Restaurants and health care facilities have routinely had more outbreak responses than other sectors of the New Mexico economy.

At news conferences, Lujan Grisham and Human Services Secretary David Scrase have described the risks associated removing face masks to dine in confined spaces.

The court case began as a standoff between state environmental regulators and Jalisco Cafe in Silver City over the businesses' alleged refusal to cease indoor dining service despite sanctions and a permit suspension.

Challengers of the ban now include K-bob Stakehouse restaurants in Raton and Las Vegas, Trinity Hotel in Carlsbad, the Red River Brewing Co. in Red River — as well as the New Mexico Restaurant Association.

New Mexico is faring better against virus infections than neighboring states such as Arizona and Texas.

As of Tuesday, it had the lowest average rate of positive tests in the western U.S., according to an analysis by The Associated Press of data collected by Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering. The number of average daily deaths is hovering between four and five statewide.

Separately, a bevy of lawsuits have been filed by small businesses that are seeking compensation from the state for financial losses linked to pandemic health orders.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.