A federal appeals court on Monday handed a partial victory to a Pasadena church by agreeing to its request to strike down state coronavirus rules setting specific church attendance numbers, but the court still upheld other limits on worship services in areas hit hard by the pandemic.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in response to a lawsuit brought by Harvest Rock Church, barred state-imposed indoor church attendance restrictions of 100 and 200 people for areas that are in the second and third tiers of the state’s four-tier pandemic tracking system.
However, the appellate justices allowed the state to continue to fully prohibit indoor worship services in regions that are in the first tier, which is the strictest tier, of the tracking system or under stay-at-home-orders due to uncontrolled spread of the virus.
The ruling also allows the state to set restrictions on indoor worship attendance based on a percentage of a church’s capacity as set by fire codes. And it also allows the state to restrict singing and chanting during indoor services, which state officials have identified as potential drivers of infections.
Harvest Rock – which has locations in Pasadena, Santa Ana, Corona and downtown Los Angeles – challenged the state coronavirus restrictions on worship services, describing them as “draconian and unconscionable” and alleging that the state was giving preferential treatment to nonreligious gatherings.
The state has defended the restrictions, arguing that they are needed to limit rising coronavirus-case rates and hospitalizations and are proportional to the risk posed by indoor worship activities such as singing and chanting.
The case has been closely watched following a U.S. Supreme Court decision that barred similar restrictions on religious services in New York. The federal court battle over limits on worship services in the midst of the pandemic was seen as a likely preview of how the expanded conservative majority on the Supreme Court will view religious rights.
The brief appellate opinion in the Harvest Rock case points to another recent opinion in a separate but similar case involving Chula Vista-based South Bay United Pentacostal Church.
In the South Bay opinion, a different panel of appellate judges noted that the ban on singing and chanting applied to all indoor activities, not just religious ones. The judges also pointed out that a hard numerical cap on attendees doesn’t take into account the size of a particular church, while a percentage limit based on church capacity is in line with coronavirus limits placed on non-religious businesses and gatherings.
The Liberty Counsel, which is representing Harvest Rock in the legal battle, indicated that they plan to appeal Monday’s decision to the Supreme Court. Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver said in a written statement that the Supreme Court “has already issued a clear road map that leads to the ultimate conclusion that Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ban of worship is unconstitutional”
The Harvest Rock opinion was released the same day that state officials lifted the statewide stay-at-home orders, placing most the state, including all of Southern California, back into the most restrictive tier of the four-tier pandemic tracking system.
Source: Orange County Register
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