Justice Department sides with Virginia church in dispute over lockdown orders

[jmyrlefuller]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/justice-department-sides-with-virginia-church-in-dispute-over-lockdown-orders/ar-BB13zwQn

by Melissa Quinn
CBS News
May 4, 2020

The Justice Department is siding with a Virginia church challenging Governor Ralph Northam's executive orders limiting in-person gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic, which the church says unfairly applies to houses of worship and other religious institutions.

Federal prosecutors submitted the statement of interest in support of Lighthouse Fellowship Church in Chincoteague Island, Virginia, on Sunday. The church filed a lawsuit in federal district court challenging Northam's orders in federal court after its pastor received a citation and summons for holding a 16-person service in early April.

(excerpt)

[PeteS in CA]

If Northam's order gives more flexibility to Kroger or CVS than it does to a church in how social distancing is done, there could be a valid case.

[PeteS in CA]

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/justice-department-virginia-church-suing-northam-coronavirus-pastor-support

DOJ sides with church suing Virginia Gov. Northam after pastor who held 16-person service faced fine, jail
By Vandana Rambaran, David Spunt | Fox News

The Justice Department is siding with a Virginia church suing Gov. Ralph Northam after police threatened a pastor with jail time or a $2,500 fine for violating the state's coronavirus lockdown restrictions by holding a 16-person church service on Palm Sunday.

The DOJ decision came after police in protective garb served a summons to Kevin Wilson, the pastor of Lighthouse Fellowship Church on Chincoteague Island, for holding the service on April 5 with 16 people spaced far apart from one another in a church that could fit 293 people. State officials said Wilson and the church violated the Virginia Constitution by breaking state-imposed social distancing restrictions intended to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

For starters, it looks like the church could argue that they complied with literal social distancing by means other than what Northam required. Kind of like that Mississippi situation where the church accomplished social distancing by people participating without leaving their cars. That alone should result in acquittal. But the bigger issue is what I mentioned above. Imposing on churches requirements more stringent than those imposed on Kroger or CVS or Target or etc. violates the First Amendment.

[conservativevoter]

It's not just Virginia what did the deed.  Churches in other states have also been threatened.  One excuse used by some NJ cops to a Baptist pastor (my daughter's church in northern NJ) was that if he did not comply with their order, Murphy would probably just take him to court where the bills would only grow and grow while the church finances declined.

I wish I could find out how the two cops knew what church to go to in order to find 16(?) people who had 'social distanced' themselves.

Murphy should have read (and understood) the Bill of Rights before becoming the governator.     

[Cyber Liberty]

Murphy should have read (and understood) the Bill of Rights before becoming the governator.     

I understand that's above his pay grade.