Judge rejects Lodi church’s bid to resume in-person services, says California order legal
A federal judge in Sacramento has rejected pleas that he issue a temporary restraining order against the state of California and local officials that would allow a Lodi church to restart in-person services despite the coronavirus pandemic.
In an order filed Tuesday morning, U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez rejected the request from Cross Culture Christian Center that he override the state’s and San Joaquin County’s stay-at-home orders and allow the church to resume services following guidelines for social distancing.
“Over a hundred years ago, the Supreme Court upheld a state’s exercise of its general police powers to promote public safety during a public health crisis,” Mendez wrote in a 20-page order. “A state’s police power entails the authority ‘to enact quarantine laws and health laws of every description’ — even under normal circumstances.”
And these circumstances California and the world find themselves in are hardly normal, Mendez concluded.
“The state and county orders are not unconstitutional,” he wrote. “Rather they are permissible exercises of emergency police powers, especially given the extraordinary public health emergency facing the state.
“Plaintiffs are not entitled to a temporary restraining order enjoining the application of state and county orders protecting the public health from a virulently infectious and frequently deadly disease.”
The order is the latest by federal judges tossing out challenges to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s stay-at-home order, and is notable because it comes from the same judge who is scheduled to hear arguments Thursday in another case seeking a retraining order against the temporary ban on public protests at the state Capitol.
That case has been brought by two Sacramento residents — one a gun rights advocate, the other a Republican congressional candidate — who say their First Amendment rights were denied when the California Highway Patrol refused to issue permits to them for protest events at the Capitol complex.
Mendez is scheduled to hear arguments on their motion for a restraining order on Thursday afternoon, at the same time that another demonstration is planned for the Capitol grounds despite the CHP’s refusal to grant organizers a permit.
The Thursday protest is billed as a gathering for people to observe the National Day of Prayer and as a rebuke to Newsom for his administration’s refusal to allow public protests and gatherings.
Pressure against the protest ban and the stay-at-home order have been building for weeks, and although the governor announced Monday he was allowing some business to reopen later this week, the protests are expected to continue.
A demonstration against his stay-at-home order at the Capitol last Friday resulted in a tense standoff with CHP officers in riot gear and demonstrators who ultimately were forced off the Capitol grounds and onto the city sidewalks.
CHP officers detained and cited 32 people for creating a public health hazard after hundreds of people gathered together without any effort at social distancing or wearing protective masks.
One of the people expected to speak at Thursday’s event, conservative pastor Tim Thompson, was among those arrested last week. He told The Sacramento Bee on Monday that he expected the event to go forward even without a permit.
This story was originally published May 5, 2020 at 10:42 AM with the headline "Judge rejects Lodi church’s bid to resume in-person services, says California order legal."