Maskless churchgoer settles lawsuit over 2020 arrest, calls liberalism a ‘modern-day cult’

[Kamaji]

Maskless churchgoer settles lawsuit over 2020 arrest, calls liberalism a ‘modern-day cult’

By Amy Nelson, Fox News
July 25, 2023

Idaho resident Gabriel Rench was awarded a hefty settlement for his 2020 arrest during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rench spoke out about his case Monday and argued his arrest was the result of liberalism and cancel culture.

Rench was arrested in September 2020 along with two other churchgoers for not wearing masks to an outdoor worship service.

The three brought the lawsuit forward the following year, alleging their First and Fourth Amendment rights were violated.

The city of Moscow ultimately agreed to settle for $300,000.

“I’m very grateful that I got a victory. How many people nationwide didn’t get a victory?” Rench asked Monday on “Fox & Friends.”

He explained to host Pete Hegseth that he believes the settlement is the city’s attempt to pay off a “massive PR problem.”

Rench was arrested in the middle of a worship service.

In a video of the incident, officers are seen taking a hymn book out of Rench’s hands before leading him away in handcuffs.

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“They violated my First Amendment rights in a small town,” he said. “And I think really what you’re seeing in the city of Moscow is a microcosm of what’s going on nationwide.”

The city of Moscow is known as a liberal college town, home to the University of Idaho, in an overall red state.

“Liberalism is really turning into kind of a modern-day cult. They use coercion, they want power, and they have no real moral standard that is kind of fixed for them,” he said.

*  *  *

Source:  https://nypost.com/2023/07/25/maskless-churchgoer-settles-lawsuit-over-2020-arrest-calls-liberalism-a-modern-day-cult/

[PeteS in CA]

Christians Arrested For Outdoor Church Service During COVID-19 Win $300,000 Lawsuit

https://www.oann.com/newsroom/christians-arrested-for-outdoor-church-service-during-covid-19-win-300000-lawsuit/

The city of Moscow, Idaho, announced this week that it would settle the lawsuit with Gabriel Rench and Sean and Rachel Bohnet, who filed a case against city officials in March 2021.

They asserted that their rights under the First and Fourth Amendments were violated when they were arrested at an outdoor “psalm sing” led by church leaders in September 2020.

Moscow, Idaho, is a community of around 25,000 inhabitants located approximately 80 miles south of Spokane, Washington. The church named in the lawsuit, Christ Church, is a small congregation of about 1,000 members that is part of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches.
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U.S. District Court Judge Morrison C. England, Jr., noted that the “plaintiffs should never have been arrested in the first place,

“Somehow, every single city official involved overlooked the exclusionary language [of constitutionally protected behavior] in the Ordinance,” the judge wrote.

The City of Moscow got off too cheap. No mention whether any city officials had to take barista or fryolator training to prepare for an involuntary career change.

A key point in this story is that the law supposedly being enforced had exceptions for constitutionally protected behavior.