NEWS PROVIDED BY
Liberty Counsel
Dec. 23, 2020
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 23, 2020 /Christian Newswire/ -- Harvest Rock Church and Harvest International Ministry filed for an emergency injunction pending appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals regarding the federal district court of California's denial of a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against Governor Gavin Newsom's unconstitutional orders. In the first request for an injunction pending appeal, the Ninth Circuit ruled 2-1 against the churches, but that decision was set aside by the Supreme Court, which ordered the lower court to reconsider its ruling following the High Court decision involving New York churches and synagogues.
Upon remand to the District Court, Judge Jesus G. Bernal denied the injunction despite the recent rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court and the Ninth Circuit in favor of houses of worship. The Supreme Court issued a clear roadmap when it ruled that New York's COVID restrictions violated the First Amendment Free Exercise rights of churches and synagogues, and then granted the petition of Harvest Rock Church and Harvest International Ministry.
On Thursday, December 3, the High Court granted cert, vacated the lower court orders involving the emergency petition of the churches, and directed the district court to reconsider in light of the Court's decision granting an injunction for churches and synagogues in New York. However, after a brief hearing in the district court, the judge failed to abide by the High Court's instructions and only imposed the very irreparable harm that the Supreme Court found in Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo and Agudath Israel v. Cuomo. In that case, the High Court held unequivocally that COVID-19 restrictions, such as those at issue with the California churches, "cannot be viewed as neutral because they single out houses of worship for especially harsh treatment."
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has also ruled in favor of Calvary Chapel Dayton Valley and Calvary Chapel Lone Mountain in their lawsuits against Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak's unconstitutional worship bans. In the opinion the court wrote, "The Supreme Court's recent decision . . . arguably represented a seismic shift in Free Exercise law, and compels the result in this case."
Liberty Counsel represents Harvest Rock Church and Harvest International Ministry which have many campuses throughout California. On August 13, the Pasadena Assistant Prosecutor in the Criminal Division sent Harvest Rock Church and Pastor Ché Ahn a letter demanding that ALL in-person worship services cease. The letter threatens daily criminal charges and fines to Pastor Ahn, the church, staff, and parishioners. The letter states that each criminal charge is punishable by up to one year in prison.
Governor Newsom's "Blueprint" singles out religious worship and imposes discriminatory prohibitions on churches that are not imposed on similar nonreligious entities such as is addressed in Catholic Diocese and Calvary Chapel. For example, in Tier 1, churches are totally prohibited from gathering in any number for indoor religious worship for 99.1% of Californians; yet, food packaging and processing plants, laundromats, warehouses, and many other business operations and gatherings are permitted to operate with no numerical or capacity restrictions.
Los Angeles County Public Health Department understood the Supreme Court Roadmap and last week issued a Revised Temporary Order that specifies that houses of worship in Los Angeles can now conduct services indoors with no numerical or percentage caps and only social distancing between separate households.
Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, "The U.S. Supreme Court issued a Constitutional roadmap for houses of worship that should lead courts to find Gov. Gavin Newsom's executive edicts violate the First Amendment. The High Court has ruled and therefore ALL lower courts must obey that decision to allow houses of worship their First Amendment freedom. The temporary loss before the District Court will become a more important victory for all houses of worship."
SOURCE Liberty Counsel
CONTACT: Mat Staver, 407-875-1776, Liberty@LC.org
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