The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California has issued a permanent injunction against Governor Gavin Newsom and the State of California from enforcing draconian lockdowns against places of worship in the state. The order amounts to the first state-wide injunction against government restrictions against houses of worship in the country.
The final judgement was issued in the case of Harvest Rock Church Inc. v. Gavin Newsom. In addition to the strictures placed on Newsom and the state, the court also ordered that the state pay Harvest Rock $1,350 in legal fees.
The verdict is less a victory for Harvest Rock than a capitulation by the State of California, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Newsom’s restrictions against churches were unconstitutional. Newsom lifted most restrictions against churches on April 13, with a plan for completely reopening expected within a week.
Harvest Rock and some other California churches had been meeting during the pandemic despite the restrictions while they continued to fight the illegal prohibitions against in-person worship. The state of California had threatened church members with jail time as well of fines of $1,000 for each day that they remained open to the public.
The new order cited several Supreme Court decisions, including Tandon v. Newsom, South Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Newsom, Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo, and, of course, Harvest Rock Church Inc. v. Newsom as reasons to end the discriminatory restrictions against worship.
The church’s pastor, Ché Ahn, announced the news of the victory on Twitter: “We have won the Harvest Rock Church’s lawsuit in both the Supreme Court and the District Court!”
The church celebrated the final judgement on its Facebook page: “When the enemy’s tactic was to silence the body of Christ, God placed courage in our pastor’s heart to stand and fight! Today, we stand on the side of victory, not only by the Supreme Court but also the District Court! He who began a good work, will carry it on to completion!”
In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Newsom issued what were possibly the most extreme set of measures limiting church worship in America, including a ban on “singing and chanting activities.”
From March 19, 2020 until May 25, 2020 there was an outright ban on in-person worship in California. From May 26, 2020 until July 12, 2020, California allowed churches to open at 25-percent of capacity, not to exceed 100 people in total. Then on July 13, 2020, in-person worship was again banned for more than 90 percent of California. This ban lasted until the Supreme Court ruled in April of 2021.
The order does not stop the state from issuing recommendations on what they may consider best practices during times of emergencies so long as it is clearly stated that those recommendations are voluntary and cannot be enforced by the state.
If anyone is wondering why Gavin Newsom is currently facing a recall election, they need to look no further than blunders such as this one. The petition to recall Newsom was actually begun in February of 2020, prior to COVID-19 being labeled a pandemic. Even prior to COVID, citizens were tired of the way Newsom put illegal immigrants before the state’s own citizens, the way he unilaterally imposed “sanctuary state” status and refused to enforce immigration laws, and the way he rationed the state’s water supply, increased taxes, and restricted the rights of parents when it came to their own children.
Then came COVID. Newsom actually thought he could simply suspend provisions of the Constitution’s First Amendment if he alone believed it was the right thing to do.
A crisis often reveals character, and in Newsom’s case, this is especially true. Prior to COVID, he was another ineffective leftist trying to implement a way of life on the citizens of his state. COVID-19 revealed him to be a megalomaniac.
