(CP) – A federal judge has rejected a request by three pastors and a church attendee to give them an exemption to a state of California order banning in-person worship services to curb the spread of COVID-19. U.S. District Judge Jesus Bernal in Los Angeles decided on Wednesday to reject a request for a temporary restraining order against California to exempt three churches from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order.
At the end of an hour-long hearing, Bernal argued that the state of emergency brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic overruled the religious liberty protections of the First Amendment. “During the state of emergency the executive powers are in effect, in that they are empowered to provide for emergency remedies which may infringe on fundamental constitutional rights,” Bernal said, according to The Associated Press.
Harmeet Kaur Dhillon of the Center for American Liberty, which is helping to represent the churches, took issue with the denial of the temporary restraining order. “Count on more restrictions on all your civil rights in California with no end in sight, if this is the reasoning courts will be applying,” she wrote on Twitter. “… at least California was forced in this lawsuit to admit that socially distanced worship in drive-up service settings was permissible, which is a big improvement over the status quo for the past 6 weeks.” READ MORE
