Chicago officials are threatening to close or even bulldoze a church that has continued meeting in defiance of a state order, saying the governor’s action has the “force of law.”
The state of Illinois has banned in-person church services larger than 10 people amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Allison Arwady, the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, sent a letter Friday to Chicago’s Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church, saying she has the power to stop the congregation from meeting by “whatever means are necessary.”
“If you continue to operate in defiance of the Executive Order, the City will pursue all available legal remedies,” she wrote in her letter. “… Any future gatherings conducted contrary to the Order will be considered a failure to abate and the City will take steps necessary to abate, including Summary Abatement.”
“Summary abatement,” as defined by the Illinois Supreme Court, means “to put down or destroy without process.”
“This means the inspector can, upon his own judgment, cause the alleged nuisance to stop on his own authority and effect a destruction of property at his discretion,” the Illinois’ Supreme Court’s opinion in City of Kankakee v. New York Cent. R. Co. read.
Arwady wrote, “if you continue to host gatherings in violation of the Executive Order, the City of Chicago will take all necessary measures to…
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