Free Exercise Updates

On Friday, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington filed suit and moved for an injunction against the District of Columbia to force it to allow indoor church attendance consistent with other indoor activities in the District.

The lawsuit argued the 50-person limits in any house of worship constitute “arbitrary” coronavirus restrictions. The suit alleged that the rules “violate the rights of more than 650,000 D.C.-area Catholics, who — at the end of this most difficult year — now face the chilling prospect of being told that there is no room for them at the Church this Christmas.”

As of this morning, I can find no updates on the progress of this case, though the archdiocese is plain that

as Christmas fast approaches, the District has imposed arbitrary 50-person caps on Mass attendance — even for masked, socially-distant services, and even when those services are held in churches that can in normal times host over a thousand people.”

Based on remarks by San Francisco Abp Cordileone in the wake of the Diocese of Brooklyn order in the Supreme Court, the US bishops appear to be proceeding based on mutual consultation. What they're asking seems to be conservative and consistent, the right to hold masked, socially-distant masses indoors under the same capacity constraints as secular indoor retail and similar activities. Abp Cordileone in his remarks implied the likelihood of similar suits. I'll report on further developments as they take place.

According to the Thomas More Society's website, a Kern County, CA superior court judge issued an injunction against the county for restricting SSPX masses there.

On December 10, 2020, a California Superior Court issued a preliminary injunction protecting Father Trevor Burfitt and his Catholic parishes. . . . The court specifically singled out the provisions of Newsom’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy and his Regional Stay at Home Order as failing to treat houses of worship in a manner “equal to the favored class of entities,” meaning “[e]ntities permitted to engage in indoor activities – also known as ‘essential businesses’ or ‘critical infrastructure’ – includ[ing] big-box retail stores, grocery stores, home improvement stores, hotels, airports, train stations, bus stations, movie production houses, warehouses, factories, schools, and a lengthy list of additional businesses.”

California county judges are clearly beginning to lose patience with state and local COVID controls. Kern County is a mountainous, partly desert, and largely rural area north of Los Angeles. Fr Burfitt us based in Los Angeles County, and it isn't clear if the judge's order applies to his parishes there and in other counties.

Although court rulings are beginning to trend in the direction of free exercise, it isn't a uniformly smooth process. According to Liberty Counsel's website,

Liberty Counsel has filed another emergency application to the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of Harvest Rock Church and Harvest International Ministry. This quick return to the High Court follows an Obama-appointed district court judge's refusal to follow the Supreme Court's [Dec 3] order.

. . . The High Court already granted cert, vacated the lower court orders involving the emergency petition of the churches and directed the district court to reconsider and apply the High Court's [Nov 25] decision granting an injunction for churches and synagogues in New York.

However, after Wednesday's hearing in district court, the Obama-appointed judge failed to abide by the High Court's instructions.

At 5:00 PM Eastern Time, December 8, the district court held a ten-minute hearing, refusing to even address the requested relief. Instead, the district court accepted the request of Gov. Newsom to kick the can down the road so that the governor could file yet another brief followed by a hearing on December 18.

I'll report on developments in these and other cases as they occur.