In
Tandon v. Newsom, 141 S.Ct. 1294 (2021) (per curiam), the U.S. Supreme Court enjoined pending appeal California s imposition of a blanket limitation during the COVID-19 pandemic on private gatherings of all kinds, religious and secular, in homes to three households. However, California permitted gatherings at other types of locations such as hair salons, retail stores, private suites at sporting events and concerts and indoor restaurants. According to the per curiam, [c]omparability is concerned with the risks various activities pose, not the reasons why people gather ; therefore, these activities are comparable. Government regulations trigger strict scrutiny under the Free Exercise Clause whenever they treat comparable secular activity more favorably than religious exercise. Narrow tailoring requires the government to show that measures less restrictive of the First Amendment activity could not address its interest in reducing the spread of COVID. Moreover, the state cannot
Iowa Capital Dispatch
In weighing a defamation case against an Iowa church, the state’s Supreme Court has upheld a decision limiting court involvement in religious matters. (Photo courtesy of Iowa Judicial Branch)
In weighing a defamation case against an Iowa church, the state’s Supreme Court has upheld a decision limiting court involvement in religious matters.
The case was initiated in 2017 by Ryan Koster, a former member of Harvest Bible Chapel, a nondenominational Christian church in Davenport. In 2005, Koster began attending the church, where he later met his future wife, Lisa. The couple married in 2007 and had two children.
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Charges have been laid against three people after Leamington OPP received complaints of large public gatherings last weekend.
OPP said officers responded on Sunday to information about “several locations” in the municipality of Leamington.
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According to police, the gatherings were found to be in violation of the provincial stay-at-home order and the Reopening Ontario Act.
Leamington OPP have not disclosed the nature of the gatherings.
Three individuals have since been charged.
The accused face potential fines of $750 each for failure to comply with the order, or $1,000 fines for preventing others from following the order.
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The parking lot at Harvest Bible Church in Windsor sat empty Sunday morning, a week after the church held large in-person services in defiance of current pandemic restrictions.
Pastor Aaron Rock told a Windsor Star reporter Friday that church leaders were discussing whether to hold another in-person service.
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The two services a week ago attracted hundreds of people, after which Rock received a court summons from Windsor police for violating gathering restrictions under the government’s stay-at-home orders to fight COVID-19. Rock was also charged in December under the Reopening Ontario Act following a church meeting.
Tom Hyman, in his letter Cleanup needed (April 16) reported a mattress near Commissioners Road.
Recently, I travelled Highbury and the mattress is still there and the trash still piling up.
Knock, knock. Hello, city? Is anyone home?
Bill Reidhead, London
Still no action
It’s been three weeks since my letter to the editor Cleanup needed (April 16) regarding the debris on Highbury Avenue from Highway 401 to Hamilton Road, which still is as disgusting as it was three weeks ago.
Would it be too much to drop two or three, four-yard garbage bins and have community service people or city employees clean it up?