The Oregon Supreme Court on Tuesday decided against 10 churches that sued Gov. Kate Brown for the right to hold in-person services.
The decision, a reversal of a ruling delivered on Monday by a lower court judge, upheld Brown’s extension of her stay-at-home order beyond its previous 28-day limit. In the first ruling, Baker County Circuit Judge Matthew Shirtcliff said that the government, by limiting services to 25 people, was putting an undue burden on churches wishing to hold socially distant services.
“The governor’s orders are not required for public safety when plaintiffs can continue to utilize social distancing and safety protocols at larger gatherings involving spiritual worship,” he wrote.
Brown praised the Supreme Court’s decision for reaffirming her executive authority and said that she has been “using science and data as my guide, heeding the advice of medical experts” to lead Oregon through the pandemic.
“There are no shortcuts for us to return to life as it was before this pandemic,” Brown said in a statement. “Moving too quickly could return Oregon to the early days of this crisis, when we braced ourselves for hospitals to be overfilled.”
The 10 churches sued in early May after Brown announced that she was extending stay-at-home orders until July. Ray Hacke, the attorney who filed the case on behalf of the churches, called the order “an infringement on religious liberty” and said that churches should be allowed to take their chances with the virus.
“If we’re risking our lives to go to church, if we survive, great,” he said. “If we die, then we’re going to heaven. If we want to take that risk, then it’s on us.”
Judges in several states this weekend ruled against governors’ orders to extend shutdowns. The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Friday reversed Gov. Tony Evers’s stay-at-home order, allowing churches to resume in-person services. A federal judge in North Carolina on Saturday struck down a restriction on indoor churches put in place by Gov. Roy Cooper.
Many churches reopened for the first time this weekend, as governors in states including Virginia, Florida, and Texas have loosened restrictions on large gatherings.
