Jennifer L. Henn  |  October 13, 2020

Category: Covid-19

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Empty pews in a church - Capitol Hill Baptist Church

Capitol Hill Baptist Church can move its outdoor worship services from Virginia back to its home in Washington, D.C., despite the district’s pandemic restrictions, a judge has ruled.

The church, which tried twice to get a waiver from Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel E. Bowser’s ban on large outdoor public gatherings, convinced U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden to grant a preliminary injunction allowing the worship services to take place while its lawsuit proceeds. Lawyers for Capitol Hill Baptist Church say the mayor’s regulations violate constitutionally protected freedom of speech and religion.

Judge McFadden said he expects the church will succeed in the lawsuit and therefore would grant it the injunction.

“The District’s current restrictions substantially burden the Church’s exercise of religion,” Judge McFadden’s ruling said. “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.”

Bowser’s ban restricts church gatherings, indoors or out, to no more than 100 people at a time.

Capitol Hill Baptist Church, which has about 850 members, took issue with that and appealed for a permit to hold an outdoor service for its entire congregation. It was turned down.

Church officials became even more dissatisfied when the mayor herself appeared at a massive anti-racism demonstration in June and when district police seemed to not be enforcing the ban at several other social justice gatherings held later.

In his ruling, Judge McFadden said the district’s passive support of the demonstrations “undermines its contention that it has a compelling interest in capping the number of attendees at the Church’s outdoor services.”

“The Mayor’s apparent encouragement of these protests also implies that the District favors some gatherings (protests) over others (religious services),” the judge went on to say.

Capitol Hill Baptist Church filed its lawsuit against Bowser and the district in September.

A woman prays outdoors with her hands folded on top of a book in her lap - Capitol Hill Baptist ChurchMore than 30 GOP senators also threw their support behind the suit, arguing that the city’s ‘selective enforcement’ of its coronavirus restrictions infringed on the church’s religious freedom,” reporting by The Hill said.

The preliminary injunction Judge McFadden issued applies only to Capitol Hill Baptist Church, as the church is suing on an individual basis, not in a class action lawsuit.

Churches nationwide have faced similar restrictions since the coronavirus pandemic hit the U.S. in March, and several have filed similar legal challenges to win back permission to hold indoor and outdoor church services.

The same day Capitol Hill Baptist Church won its injunction, a federal judge in Brooklyn denied a national Orthodox Jewish organization Agudath Israel of America request to block restrictions on gatherings at synagogues and other houses of worships that had been imposed by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, The Washington Post reported. The judge in that case, U.S. District Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto, said Cuomo’s regulations were not a violation of religious freedoms.

Many other churches have turned to hosting online church services during the pandemic.

Capitol Hill Baptist Church said such substitutes are inadequate. The church “believes that a central part of following Christ is worshipping together in the same physical space,” it argued in its lawsuit and requested permission to gather.

Washington, D.C., officials also argued that Capitol Hill Baptist could hold several smaller gatherings of less than 100 members at a time to abide by the pandemic restrictions and still have in-person worship services.

Judge McFadden wasn’t persuaded.

“The District misses the point. It ignores the church’s sincerely held (and undisputed) belief about the theological importance of gathering in person as a full congregation,” he wrote in granting the injunction. “The District may think that its proposed alternatives are sensible substitutes. And for many churches they may be,” but it is not for the District of Columbia to say Capitol Hill Baptist Church’s beliefs are wrong.

Capitol Hill Baptist Church has been holding outdoor worship services in a field in Virginia since the spring.

Have you been prevented from attending church services because of coronavirus pandemic restrictions? Tell us about it in the comment section below.

Capitol Hill Baptist Church is represented by Matthew T. Martens, Kevin Gallagher, Matthew E. Vigeant, Andrew Miller and Kevin Palmer of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP and Hiram S. Sasser III of First Liberty Institute.

The Capitol Hill Baptist Church Lawsuit is Capitol Hill Baptist Church v. Muriel Bowser, et al., Case No. 1:20-cv-02710 (TNM), in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

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