‘No Pandemic Exception’
Religious liberty advocates have been swamped with requests for help.
Scottsdale, Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom has represented 14 churches in lawsuits and assisted more than 2,500 churches and ministries.
First Liberty Institute, based outside of Dallas, Texas, received more than a hundred requests for legal help in the first half of May, significantly more than the few dozen they would have expected so far this year, according to attorney Jeremy Dys.
One client was On Fire Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, which sued the city after the mayor banned outdoor drive-in services leading up to Easter in April. A judge ruled the services could go on.
“We believe that beyond any shadow of a doubt it is crucial to be able to congregate with one another,” church Pastor Chuck Salvo said in a recent interview.
But judges also have ruled against such challenges.
The US Supreme Court dismissed an appeal from a California church to strike down Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s restriction of places of worship to 25% capacity or no more than 100 people.
In Illinois, a federal appeals court denied two church requests to hold services in spite of Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s ban on religious gatherings. The judge said the lawsuit was ill-founded, selfish and could risk lives.
In Maine, a US district judge denied a church’s motion for a temporary restraining order to allow it to hold an in-person service in early May. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills had limited gatherings to 10 people but allowed drive-in services. The judge ruled the state’s standards were uniform and did not violate the Constitution.
Most of the legal debate has revolved around consistent restrictions.
Religious groups shouldn’t be categorically exempt from government oversight, and governments have a legitimate interest to protect the public’s health, said Emilie Kao, director of the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Religion & Civil Society at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C.
“Government authorities, state or local, should be treating religion in an even-handed and fair way,” Kao said. “We’ve seen disparate treatment of religious groups, religious communities, where their ability to worship has been limited where similar-sized secular activities were allowed.”
For example, she said, Minnesota allowed malls to reopen before religious gatherings. Under the state’s plan, retail businesses could reopen at 50% capacity May 18. Religious gatherings were allowed at 25% capacity starting May 27.
And most religious groups, she said, want to follow health recommendations and keep congregants safe.
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