Governor Can’t Close Religious Schools If They Follow Health Guidelines, Kentucky AG Says

Governor Can’t Close Religious Schools If They Follow Health Guidelines, Kentucky AG Says
Fairfax County public school buses are lined up at a maintenance facility in Lorton, Va., on July 24, 2020. J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo
Bill Pan
Bill Pan
Reporter
|Updated:

Kentucky’s attorney general said Wednesday that state and local officials cannot order religious schools to close, as long as they are complying with social distancing and health guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a statement released minutes into Gov. Andy Beshear’s daily press briefing, Attorney General Daniel Cameron said that a forced closure of religious schools violates the First and Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and state law.