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A panel of three federal appeals court judges decided over the weekend to reverse a lower court’s ruling and uphold Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear’s orders halting all in-person, classroom education in an attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19.
The decision came days just days after U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove dealt Beshear a blow by agreeing with lawyers for a Christian school who argued religious and private schools should be exempt from the governor’s decree.
On Nov. 25, Van Tatenhove granted Danville Christian Academy’s request for a restraining order preventing the state from enforcing the classroom learning ban on it and all other religious and private schools.
Several other private and parochial schools had filed legal paperwork to join the Danville case against the Beshear order, and to mount separate legal actions of their own – including a group of eight schools led by Pleasant View Baptist Church.
On Sunday, the U.S Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati struck down the restraining order and said Beshear’s move to suspend in-person learning in all of the Kentucky’s K-12 schools would apply to all schools – public, religious and private – equally in the midst of a statewide emergency.
“As the governor explains, elementary and secondary schools pose unique problems for public health officials responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Compliance with masking and social distancing requirements is difficult to maintain, and students receiving in-person instruction must, in any event, remove their facial coverings to eat,” Kentucky’s Courier-Journal quoted the appeals court ruling as saying Sunday.
The appeals court judges went on to say they “are not in a position to second-guess the governor’s determination regarding the health and safety of the Commonwealth at this point in time.”
With the coronavirus pandemic surging nationwide, and Kentucky experiencing a sharp increase in cases, Beshear issued the executive order to temporarily close schools on Nov. 18. The directive said all K-12 schools in the commonwealth had to switch to distance learning from Nov. 23 to Jan. 4.
Only elementary schools located in counties where the number of infections was below the “red” level – those averaging less than 25 new coronavirus cases a day per 100,000 residents – could resume classroom learning earlier. Those schools, with use of proper safety precautions and social distancing, will be allowed to resume in-person education Dec. 7.
Two days after the Beshear order was issued, Danville Christian Academy and the state’s Attorney General David Cameron filed a federal lawsuit against the governor challenging the move. They have argued the order violates the federal and state constitutions’ provisions for religious freedom.
Last week, a group of other private and religious schools and churches, including Pleasant View Baptist Church, and several families filed a class action lawsuit against Beshear and Lynne M. Saddler, the district director of health at the Northern Kentucky Health Department, over an array of the state’s COVID-19 restrictions. Several of the plaintiffs also filed briefs in support of the Danville lawsuit.
After Judge Van Tatenhove issued the restraining order in the Danville case he requested that lawyers for Pleasant View Baptist let him know by Monday if they intend to proceed with their case – presumably the restraining order might make their case moot. Given the appellate court’s actions later, it is unclear what position Pleasant View Baptist Church and the other plaintiffs will take.
In a statement to the Courier-Journal on Sunday, Gov. Beshear said, “While we all want to get our kids back to in-person instruction, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recognized that doing so now would endanger the health and lives of Kentucky children, educators and families.”
Attorney General Cameron took to Twitter in response to the decision Sunday and wrote “we’re already hard at work to take this matter to the United States Supreme Court.”
Churches and schools throughout the country have taken their state officials to court over COVID-19-related restrictions on education, church services and other gatherings.
In Colorado, for example, the congregants of two churches are fighting to be able to take off face coverings if and when they interfere with their religious exercise despite state orders requiring masks be worn indoors in public.
In Pasadena, California, a church is suing the state over the right to worship in person during the pandemic.
And in early October in Washington D.C., a judge ruled in favor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church, which sued to move its outdoor worship services from Virginia back to the capital despite the district’s pandemic restrictions.
Do your children go to a K-12 school in Kentucky? What do you think about Gov. Beshear’s decision to temporarily halt classroom learning due to the coronavirus pandemic? Tell us about it in the comment section below.
Danville Christian Academy and Attorney General Cameron are represented by Deputy Attorney General Barry L. Dunn, Solicitor General S. Chad Meredith, Deputy Solicitor General Matthew F. Kuhn, Assistant Attorney General Carmine G. Iaccarino and Special Litigation Counsel Brett R. Nolan of the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office; Joseph A. Bilby of Bilby Law PLLC; and David J. Hacker, Justin Butterfield, Roger Byron and Hiram S. Sasser, III of First Liberty Institute.
The Beshear Order Lawsuit is Danville Christian Academy, Inc, et al. v. Andrew Beshear, Case No. 3:20-cv-00075-GFVT, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.
The Pleasant View Baptist Church Lawsuit is Pleasant View Baptist Church, et al. v. Lynne M. Saddler and Andrew Bashear, Case No. 2:20-cv-00166-DLB-CJS, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.
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