Posted on 10/10/2020 4:23:46 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
A federal judge granted Capitol Hill Baptist Churchs request for a preliminary injunction against Mayor Muriel Bowser allowing the congregation to resume worship services in the District of Columbia.
The Court determines that the church is likely to succeed in proving that the Districts actions violate [the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993] RFRA, wrote U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Trevor McFadden in a decision late Friday.
The Districts current restrictions substantially burden the churchs exercise of religion. More, the District has failed to offer evidence at this stage showing that it has a compelling interest in preventing the church from meeting outdoors with appropriate precautions, or that this prohibition is the least-restrictive means to achieve its interest. The Court will therefore grant the Churchs motion for injunctive relief, McFadden wrote.
Senior Pastor Mark Dever and the 850-member congregation that has held worship services every Sunday since 1878 (except for three weeks during the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic) had sought unsuccessfully since March a compromise with Bowser and D.C. government that would allow it to continue meeting.
While its historic building is located only a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol complex, the congregation has recently been meeting in an open field near Del Ray Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia.
The mayor had banned all indoor and outdoor church gatherings of 100 or more persons in response to the CCP Virus, which is also known as the novel coronavirus, that has killed more than 210,000 Americans in 2020. The ban applied even if participants wore masks and socially distanced.
But CHBC officials told the court congregational worship meetings are required by its understanding of the Bible, and for that reason it has not provided a digital alternative to in-person attendance.
(Excerpt) Read more at theepochtimes.com ...
Another way to do it is with http://archive.vn/ - create the archived article, then link that.
Federalist Society Trump judge for The Win!!!
The problem with the court decision is that it appears to allow only outside church meetings. Not much help in the rain or in winter.
There really needs to be civil and criminal penalties for elected officials violating people’s constitutional rights.
L8r
Pesky Calvinists.</sarc>
Deprivation of rights under color of law.
Lots of felonies to go around.
“nor the free exercise thereof...”
It was predestined. :O)
The Court determines that the church is likely to succeed in proving that the Districts actions violate [the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993] RFRA, wrote U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Trevor McFadden in a decision late Friday.>>>>
My Dad’s cousin’s son.
Gee, two weeks (plus one) to "flatten the curve" worked back then....
...and we are now at 29 weeks and counting!?!?!?
Must not have been an election year.
In 1918 Woodrow Wilson was midway into his second term.
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