Newsom s restrictions on indoor religious services ruled valid by federal judge
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Calvary Chapel in San Jose has been fined for gatherings exceeding the 100-person limit.Josie Lepe / Special to The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less
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Attendees hug as they enter the service at the Calvary Chapel in San Jose, California on Sunday, December 13, 2020. Calvary Chapel, which has been found in contempt of court and fined for continuing to hold indoor services despite the lockdown in Santa Clara County, which only allows worship outside.Josie Lepe / Special to the ChronicleShow MoreShow Less
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Members of the Calvary Chapel San Jose congregation return to their vehicles as they leave a service at the Calvary Chapel in San Jose on Dec. 13, 2020. A federal judge says Gov. Gavin Newsom’s shutdown of indoor religious services in most of California protects public health without violating religious freedom.Josie Lepe / Special to the ChronicleShow MoreShow Le
Newsom s restrictions on indoor religious services ruled valid by judge By Bob Egelko
A federal judge says Gov. Gavin Newsom’s shutdown of indoor worship services in most of California is a valid measure to protect public health and protects religious freedom by allowing outdoor services, unlike the New York restrictions struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Harvest Rock Church of Pasadena and Harvest International Ministry, affiliated with 162 California churches, argued that Newsom’s orders violated the constitutional standards set by the high court in its Nov. 25 ruling on the New York case.
After President Trump’s appointment of Amy Coney Barrett to succeed the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Supreme Court rejected the reasoning of its May 30 decision allowing an earlier version of Newsom’s limits on indoor worship services and barred New York state from restricting religious activities more tightly than secular businesses. A panel of the Ninth
The Harvest Rock Church included this photo of California Governor Gavin Newsom dining at the exclusive restaurant French Laundry in a brief with the Supreme Court. (Image via Courthouse News)
(CN) Weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court vacated a federal judge’s ruling on Harvest Rock Church’s challenge to California’s indoor gathering restrictions, an attorney for the Christian church said in district court Friday the state unfairly targeted religious gatherings with “harsh treatment.”
The Christian organization, which has over 160 member churches across the Golden State, sued to overturn California’s coronavirus-related restrictions limiting in-person worship services.
The rules violate the church’s right to practice its religion and unfairly expose its religious community to potential criminal penalties, the church said in its lawsuit.
This Dec. 16, 2019, file photo, shows a public phone near detainees in a residential pod during a media tour of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Tacoma, Wash. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
(CN) Federal immigration officials argued to the Ninth Circuit Wednesday they should not be under a nationwide court order to provide special care to disabled detainees due to Covid-19 because they responded to the pandemic in a timely manner.
Despite numerous outbreaks of Covid-19 at multiple Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities, an attorney for the government argued before a Ninth Circuit panel that the injunction, issued by U.S. District Judge Jesus Bernal in April, put the agency “in a very rough place.”