A federal judge granted Capitol Hill Baptist Church’s request for a preliminary injunction against District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser, allowing the congregation to resume worship services.
“The Court determines that the church is likely to succeed in proving that the District’s actions violate [the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993] RFRA,” wrote U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Trevor McFadden in a decision late on Oct. 9.
“The District’s current restrictions substantially burden the church’s exercise of religion,“ McFadden wrote. ”More, the District has failed to offer evidence at this stage showing that it has a compelling interest in preventing the church from meeting outdoors with appropriate precautions, or that this prohibition is the least-restrictive means to achieve its interest. The Court will therefore grant the Church’s motion for injunctive relief.”
Senior Pastor Mark Dever and the 850-member congregation, which has held worship services every Sunday since 1878 (except for three weeks during the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic), had sought unsuccessfully since March to reach a compromise with Bowser and D.C. government that would allow it to continue meeting.
While its historic building is located only a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol complex, the congregation has recently been meeting in an open field near Del Ray Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia.
But CHBC officials told the court that congregational worship meetings are required by its understanding of the Bible, and, for that reason, it hasn’t provided a digital alternative to in-person attendance.
“Under the District’s four-stage plan, CHBC’s in-person worship gatherings will be prohibited until scientists develop either a widely-available vaccine or an effective therapy for COVID-19,” the church said in its suit.
McFadden ruled that “the COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly presented unique challenges to governments, which are tasked with balancing the public safety and religious freedom. The Court acknowledges the difficult decisions facing the Mayor here. But Congress set rules for this sort of balancing when it enacted RFRA.”
He said, “the church has shown that it is likely to succeed in proving that the District’s actions impose a substantial burden on its exercise of religion. For its part, the District has not shown that it is likely to prove a compelling interest in prohibiting the church from holding outdoor worship services with appropriate precautions, or that its restrictions are the least restrictive means available to achieve its public health objectives.”
Congress isn’t permitted by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to pass laws regulating freedom of religion or establishing an official religious doctrine.
“The Mayor’s discrimination against houses of worship rests on a mistaken, and unconstitutional, premise that one particular exercise of free speech—a church’s desire to gather together and worship their God—is subordinate to other First Amendment-protected activities.”
