Government restrictions on churches meeting in-person during the COVID-19 pandemic likely would be upheld in court as long as they are temporary and don’t target religion, an attorney for Alliance Defending Freedom said Tuesday during a webinar.
“States certainly have the obligation – or the authority, at least – to protect the health and safety of their citizens,” Ryan Tucker, senior counsel with ADF, said during a webinar that examined how religious organizations are responding to the pandemic.
ADF has received numerous phone calls in recent weeks from pastors and church officials asking if the government can close houses of worship, Tucker said.
“We have to analyze each of those orders [and] look to see, is the church itself being targeted? Are these temporary restrictions? Are these being evenly applied?” he said.
If the order is temporary and the closures are being evenly applied, then “most often those restrictions, if challenged in court, will be upheld – at least during a national pandemic like this,” Tucker said.
The power to close churches “is not unlimited,” he emphasized.
Tucker pointed to comments made by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who said houses of worship that violate the city’s order to not meet in-person could be closed “permanently.” Such a statement, Tucker said, “clearly is unconstitutional.”
Tucker applauded
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