https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/04/the-wuhan-coronavirus-and-religious-liberty-in-one-city.phpTHE WUHAN CORONAVIRUS AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTYPOSTED ON APRIL 16, 2020 BY PAUL MIRENGOFF
The city of Greenville, Mississippi issued an order prohibiting communal religious services. The prohibition was a response to the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. The prohibition applied no matter what social distancing methods churches used to ensure against spreading the virus.
Greenville aggressively enforced its order. On April 8, police officers broke up a service held in a church parking lot in which there was no person-to-person physical contact. Violating social distancing protocols, officers demanded that those in attendance roll down their car windows, demanded to see driver’s licenses, and wrote out fines of $500 per attendee.
This was too much for the Trump administration. When the church in question responded by suing the City, the Justice Department, through its Civil Rights Division, filed a statement of interest in support of the church. In addition, Attorney General Barr issued a Statement on Religious Practice and Social Distancing.
I've said little on this topic, because my feelings on it are very mixed. The
Free Exercise clause is clear. The there are limits to such freedoms is also clear - the First Amendment free speech and press freedoms do not protect slander. State and local officials have duties with regard to public health.
Putting all that together, think the best course is for state/local SiP orders to be voluntary for churches, synagogues, mosques, temple, etc..
And for leaders of such congregations to use common sense. E.G., SF Bay Area counties original SiP order was voluntary for churches, etc.. When I did a quick surveys of Silicon Valley "mega-churches"' websites, all but one had gone livestream. The one that did not, at that time, limited the number of people in the main sanctuary (to ~half of the SiP order's limit) and distributed other congregants to various classrooms with video feed (some time after that they went to livestream-only).
This MS case - the mayor subsequently backed down - illustrates how government inflexibility can also be stupidity. Congregants at this church found a way to maintain social distancing that allowed them to gather for worship at the same time (like a drive-in theater but using their car radios instead of a squawk-box). But
Doh! Mayor wasn't satisfied by social-distancing being maintained by means other than what he prescribed.
