A church in northwestern Illinois on Thursday sued Gov. J.B. Pritzker, saying that the governor’s bans on religious gatherings of any sort, as well his intention to extend those bans through May, represents a “hostility” to faith.
The lawsuit, filed by the Thomas More Society on behalf of The Beloved Church in Lena, Illinois, accuses Pritzker’s orders of violating the First Amendment and the Illinois Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The church’s pastor, Steve Cassell, asked that he be granted a temporary restraining order, so that he may hold an in-person service in the first week of May.
“The spiritual well-being of the people of Illinois is just as important as their temporal well-being during these dark times,” said Thomas More Society senior counsel Peter Breen. “Keeping liquor stores open but indefinitely shutting down churches and religious ministries violates our Constitution and our most basic liberties. If liquor stores are ‘essential,’ so are churches.”
The lawsuit comes just days after a judge in Illinois ruled against Pritzker’s shutdown extension, saying that the order “shredded the Constitution.” The previous week, Republican state Rep. Darren Bailey had sued Pritzker, alleging that the governor had no authority to extend his original shutdown order, which is set to expire at the end of April. The ruling only applied to Bailey.
“What’s going on is actually that our governor, J.B. Pritzker, is threatening the very constitutionality of the land that we live in by taking actions on himself,” Bailey said. “The legislators, the House and Senate, have also been asleep during this whole time in just allowing, I don’t know, fear, panic — allowing this governor to do as he wishes.”
[Read more: ‘Faith is a good thing’: Fauci says religion plays ‘important role’ during coronavirus pandemic]
Pritzker’s office stated on Wednesday that he will appeal the ruling, saying that his orders are “a lawful exercise of his constitutional authority to protect the public health.”
The church’s lawsuit references Bailey’s complaint, arguing that as the state’s shutdown has worn on, Pritzker’s strict shutdown terms have become less necessary, saying that efforts to “flatten the curve” have largely succeeded since Pritzker ordered churches and most businesses to close.
“‘Flattening the curve’ to preserve hospital capacity was the principal reason for Pritzker’s orders: that aim has now been achieved,” the lawsuit said. “Yet Pritzker’s orders as to churches and religious activities have not changed one iota from the early days of the coronavirus epidemic — when COVID-19 cases were growing exponentially, and policymakers feared millions would die — to today — when the level of coronavirus infections is stable.”
To extend the order, while allowing adding activities such as golfing, dog grooming, and fishing to “essential” activities, violates Illinois’s RFRA, which states that government restrictions on churches must be “narrowly tailored” to advance a “compelling interest” of the government, the lawsuit said. Retaining such a broad shutdown on churches is akin to a “house arrest” sentence, it added.
“This has now gone on for almost a month and a half, with another month to come, and with no end in sight,” the lawsuit said. “No thought has been given to regional differences in these orders. No consideration has been made for church size. No allowance has been made in relation to particular individuals’ risk factors for coronavirus. No explanation has been offered to tie any spread of the coronavirus to a particular community. These orders cannot meet strict scrutiny.”
Illinois is one of only 10 states to ban all religious services. Most states either limit church gatherings to 10 people or exempt them from shutdown orders entirely.
In the past month, many churches have sued state and local governments, alleging that various bans restricting the ways that they worship violate the First Amendment, as well as the RFRA.
