Trump Department Of Justice: States Must Loosen Church Restrictions If They Allow Protests

The Trump Justice Department is
pressuring Washington Gov. Jon Inslee
to loosen restrictions on churches by
arguing the state’s policy of allowing
unlimited peaceful protests while
capping houses of worship is
discriminatory and likely
unconstitutional.
The Department of Justice, in a June
11 Statement of Interest in a Tacoma,
Wash., federal court supporting a
Washington state church, argues
“imposing a hard cap on all religious
worship and no cap on secular
gatherings constitutes unequal
treatment.”
The state of Washington limits outdoor
worship services to 100 people
“regardless of distancing, hygiene, and
other precautionary measures.” It also
limits restaurants and taverns at 50
percent capacity while limiting houses
of worship to 25 percent capacity, with
a hard cap of 50 individuals.
“Yet, they permit protests without
numerical limitation with only an
unenforceable and unenforced
suggestion by the Governor for ‘people
to be safe for themselves and the
people around them’ by ‘wearing a
mask and … distancing as much as
you can,’” the brief says.
The lawsuit against the state was
brought by Harborview Fellowship in
Pierce County, Wash.
The federal court brief also cites
Supreme Court Chief Justice John
Roberts’ May 29 opinion that
suggested churches should be treated
the same as “comparable secular
gatherings” of “large groups of people”
in “close proximity for extended
periods of time.” Although Roberts’
opinion disappointed conservatives at
the time – he declined to get involved
in a dispute involving a California
church – the Justice Department
hopes his comments about large
gatherings sway the Tacoma court.
The nationwide protests against racial
injustice were in their infancy when
Roberts and the court considered the
California case. His vote was the
difference in the California church
losing at the high court, 5-4.
“Washington appears to ‘exempt or
treat more leniently’ precisely the types
of activities that Chief Justice Roberts
suggested would be appropriate
comparators for religious gatherings,”
the Justice Department brief says.
The Washington church “desires and
intends to impose similar social
distancing restrictions and hygiene
procedures as those imposed by
restaurants and taverns, and greater
restrictions and procedures than those
required of protesters,” the brief says.
The facts of the case “show that the
State has imposed limits on religious
activity that it has not imposed on
comparable secular activities,” the brief
says, calling it a “Free Exercise
violation.”
U.S. Attorney Brian T. Moran of the
Western District of Washington said the
“ability to gather to express one’s faith
and seek comfort is a fundamental
right.”
“Just as we have seen peaceful
protestors gathered together and
exercising their First Amendment
rights, so too must we protect the right
of religious institutions such as
churches, mosques and temples to
gather together and express their
faith,” Moran said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice
sent a letter to Montgomery County,
Md., officials June 10, noting that the
county allowed a protest of “hundreds
of persons packed into a library” yet
apparently denies “similar gatherings
for religious exercise.”
“The Council should ensure that it
imposes no more onerous conditions
on gatherings for religious exercise
than it does on gatherings for other
purposes,” the letter says.