Free Exercise Updates

Liberty Counsel has announced that the State of Colorado has dropped its suit against Andrew Wommack Ministries, which I covered as the case was under way on the old blog, back in October. This came in the wake of Gov Polis's, removal of numerical caps on worship services, which in turn was a direct result of the US Supreme Court's action in the Diocese of Brooklyn case on November 24.

On December 16, District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser relaxed the attendance cap on churches in the District following the Archdiocese of Washington's suit.

On Wednesday D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser removed the 50-person limit for religious gatherings and allowed houses of worship to welcome up to 250 people or reach 25% capacity. The Mayor’s office made the adjustment five days after the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington sued the mayor over attendance caps.

While the order eases restrictions on religious gatherings, its language emphasizes the increasing severity of the coronavirus pandemic and discourages large gatherings.

“The larger the gathering, the more the exposure,” the order reads. “A recent lawsuit appears to insist on a constitutional right to hold indoor worship services of even a thousand persons or more at the largest facilities, which flies in the face of all scientific and medical advice and will doubtlessly put parishioners in harm’s way.”

The problem continues to be that with mask and social distance orders in place over much of the US, and other draconian restrictions like restaurant closings, COVID cases increase notwithstanding. Yet the experience of California megachurches, which defy health orderw with thousands of people each week, has been that infections are minimal, and no symptoms are reported at all.

On December 15, the US Supreme Court handed down a writ of certiorari before judgment in the case of SSPX priest Kevin Robinson and Orthodox Rabbi Yisrael Knopfler, who had been attempting since last May to remove New Jersey Gov Murphy's restrictions on church attendance. I covered the original case on the old blog here. As reported here,

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court upheld the petition for an injunction and ordered the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals to decide the case in line with a 5-4 ruling the Supreme Court issued in late November in a New York lawsuit.

In that case, the court barred authorities from enforcing attendance restrictions at churches and synagogues in the midst of the pandemic.

The ban on religious gatherings in New Jersey has been a contentious one going back to before Easter. One gathering broken up in Lakewood during the initial days of Murphy's stay-at-home order in March was of a group of men who gathered for religious studies. Knopfler was arrested in mid-May following a religious gathering that drew about 20 men, in violation of what was a 10-person limit at that time.

Also on December 15, the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

ruled in favor of two Nevada churches that say the state’s COVID-19 restrictions violate their First Amendment rights.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agrees with the churches in Las Vegas and rural Lyon County that the state's limits are unconstitutional because they place harsher attendance limits on religious gatherings than casinos and other secular businesses.

. . . It instructed the district judges to preliminary enjoin Nevada from imposing attendance limits for churches stricter than those for other gatherings or businesses.

However, as reported here on December 8, on December 3, the US Supreme Court sent the case of Harvest Rock Church back to the Ninth District and the circuit court for recnsideration based on its order in the Diocese of Brooklyn case. But this left room for delay.

At this point, the circuit judge appears to be slow-walking the process.

On Saturday, December 5, the district court set a hearing for December 8. However, the court then granted Gov. Newsom more time so he could file yet another brief on December 14, followed by a hearing on December 18.

As I reported in the earlier post, it could take months to get the case back to the Supreme Court.

So far, there's been no news in the case of South Bay United Pentecostal Churches' petition for writ of certiorari before judgment, which I reported here on November 29.

The reality is -- and this will be the case no matter who is president -- the moral entrepreneurs are out to extend lockdowns indefinitely. Dr Fauci is now saying things could possibly get back to normal by Christmas 2021, or maybe 2022. This is going to be a long and difficult fight.