People of faith gain another victory in California.
The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California has read the U.S. Constitution and a long string of Supreme Court rulings (any one of which should have long since been sufficiently clear to the State of California).
The court issued a permanent injunction against Gov. Newsom, and “all State officers, agents, employees, and all other persons in active concert or participation with him” prohibiting any of those individuals from engaging in ongoing religious discrimination against churches and other places of worship in the state of California.
I will guess that broad definition of who is covered by the permanent injunction would also include all county public health authorities.
The state’s behavior is so egregious that the court awarded $1,350,000 in legal fees to attorneys for Harvest Rock Church and Harvest International Ministry.
The harsh slap down of religious persecution includes permanent injunctions against, quoting the order:
“(1) any capacity or numerical restrictions on religious worship services and gatherings at places of worship, provided that if
(a) hospital admissions for individuals aged 1-17 suffering from COVID-19 rise at least 100% statewide, or at least 200% in a county with at least 10 hospitalizations in the prior week, in each of two consecutive weeks; or
(b) statewide daily case rates for COVID-19 rise above 25 cases per hundred thousand persons, and the statewide four week total projected available adult intensive care unit bed capacity falls below 20%,
the State may impose capacity or numerical restrictions on religious worship services and gatherings at places of worship that are either identical to, or at least as favorable as, the restrictions imposed on other similar gatherings of similar risk, as identified by the Supreme Court in Tandon v. Newsom, 141 S. Ct. 1294 (2021), South Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Newsom, 141 S. Ct. 716 (2021), Harvest Rock Church, Inc. v. Newsom, 141 S. Ct. 1289 (2021), and Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo, 141 S. Ct. 63 (2020);
(2) any new public health precautions on religious worship services and gatherings at places of worship not in the current guidance, unless those precautions are either identical to, or at least as favorable as, the precautions imposed on other similar gatherings of similar risk, as identified by the Supreme Court in Tandon v. Newsom, 141 S. Ct. 1294 (2021), South Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Newsom, 141 S. Ct. 716 (2021), Harvest Rock Church, Inc. v. Newsom, 141 S. Ct. 1289 (2021), and Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo, 141 S. Ct. 63 (2020); and
(3) any restrictions or prohibitions on the religious exercise of singing and chanting during religious worship services and gatherings at places of worship besides generally applicable restrictions or prohibitions included in the guidance for live events and performances.”
For your reading pleasure the order, dated 5/14/21, may be found here.
Pro tip for other politicians and all public health officials: if there are four, count ’em four, Supreme Court orders going against your official positions, one, two, three, four, then you probably should have figured out for yourself a long time ago that you were severely, extremely, outrageously, inexcusably, appallingly out of line as you practiced intentional religious discrimination.
Here are links to a few of the exquisitely small number of articles covering the issue. As of late evening on Tuesday, 5/25/21, I can find zero coverage in major media outlets, even though the story has been out there since last Friday.
- 5/25/21 – Washington Examiner – Newsom ordered to pay $1.35 million for Covid-19 church discrimination
- 5/21/21 – CBN News – No More Church Bans: CA Gov. Newsom Ordered to Pay $1.35M in Legal Fees for Shutting Down Churches
- 5/17/21 – Liberty Council – CA Churches Permanently Quarantine Gov. Newsom
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