The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled Saturday that Kentucky state officials cannot prevent Maryville Baptist Church from holding drive-in worship services.
A three-judge panel declined to extend the injunction to in-person church services but supported the rights of churches to hold drive-in services despite the statewide ban on mass gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Courier-Journal.
“The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit today ruled in favor of Maryville Baptist Church and agreed with us that the Governor’s executive orders raise significant concerns about targeting of religion,” Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron tweeted in response to the ruling. “The court noted that “the Governor did not narrowly tailor the order’s impact on religious exercise” and that “the Governor’s orders have several potential hallmarks of discrimination.
“Churches should have the same flexibility as secular groups to resume operations, in accordance with social distancing guidelines,” he added. “If big box stores and liquor stores can do it, churches should be allowed to also. As the court said, ‘Why is it safe to wait in a car for a liquor store to open but dangerous to wait in a car to hear morning pastors? Why can someone safely walk down a grocery store aisle but not a pew? Why can someone safely interact with a brave deliverywoman but not a stoic minister?’”
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit today ruled in favor of Maryville Baptist Church and agreed with us that the Governor’s executive orders raise significant concerns about targeting of religion. (1/5)
— Attorney General Daniel Cameron (@kyoag) May 2, 2020
“This is a stellar victory for religious freedom,” Mat Staver, whose Liberty Counsel is representing the church, said in a statement. “From the beginning, we have said that Gov. Andy Beshear’s orders violated the First Amendment and the Kentucky Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The laws of the Commonwealth and the Constitution are not suspended during a crisis or a pandemic.”
“Gov. Beshear intentionally banned religious services for no reason other than he wanted to. This decision clearly reveals he was wrong,” he added.
Gov. Andy Beshear argued the ruling was a reinforcement of the position they’ve taken all along.
“While Maryville Baptist claimed that the governor banned drive-in services, he clearly did not. The governor has allowed and even encouraged hundreds of drive-in services across Kentucky,” spokeswoman Crystal Staley said in a statement. “He explicitly encouraged them for Easter at his daily news conferences and on calls with local leaders and clergy.
“What the 6th Circuit decided is that drive-in services are OK, but the governor’s order prohibiting in-person services remains in effect. That has been the governor’s exact policy since the beginning,” Staley added.
The panel of judges argued that Beshear’s order did not “explicitly set aside an exception for drive-in services,” according to the Courier-Journal.
Maryville Baptist Church asked the Cincinnati-based appellate court late Thursday for an emergency injunction against Beshear’s mass gathering ban from restricting religious gatherings, arguing it would suffer from “more Commonwealth enforcement actions” for worship services.
Kentucky has been at the center of a nationwide debate as to whether or not churches should be considered “essential” in the same way grocery stores, liquor stores, gas stations, and health offices are.
Beshear caused controversy in April when he announced that police would track churchgoers who attended Easter services with the goal of forcing them to quarantine for 14 days.
In Louisville, Kentucky, a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order filed by a church against the city’s mayor to allow Easter Sunday drive-in services. The judge went so far as to call the mayor’s order banning drive-thru services “stunning” and “beyond all reason, unconstitutional.”
