Federal judges find that majority of government bans on church services are constitutional
During the coronavirus shutdown, not all religious liberty cases are created equal.
In the past few weeks, a flurry of churches filed lawsuits against state and local governments, alleging that bans on services are unconstitutional. Others argued that while the bans themselves are constitutional, additional strictures prohibiting drive-in services are not.
Federal judges delivered decisions on several of these cases last week, finding that the majority of the cases made by religious liberty advocates do not rise to the level of unconstitutionality.
A judge in New Mexico on Friday threw out a case brought by Legacy Church in Albuquerque, where the church disputed Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s order that no church may gather with more than five people. Legacy said that it had been overburdened by the limitation because it required more than five people to organize a service. Furthermore, church...