Thread: 1/Civil rights update: We had a solid TRO hearing today in federal court with Judge Bernal on religious liberty. There were about a dozen lawyers for the state and two counties on the call. Judge was prepared, asked thoughtful questions, let both sides argue./
2/ Court will issue an order tomorrow but he indicated he was likely to rule for the government (Governor/AG/counties) that because we are in an emergency (with no stated end), normal constitutional analysis does not apply. But if it did, rational basis analysis would apply .../
3/ and not strict scrutiny or some other form of analysis. Since multiple rights are implicated here (worship, assembly, speech) & we are NOT dealing with laws of general applicability (many exceptions for secular purposes) we disagree, & have asked for a preliminary injunction/
4/ Because the state's view of religion was summarized in the Riverside counsel's argument -we cancelled Coachella and sporting events too, religious gatherings are similar- and because the Governor is saying there will be restrictions into next year. Count on more restrictions/
5/on all your civil rights in California with no end in sight, if this is the reasoning courts will be applying. Religious people and civil libertarians don't want to die from any disease any more than the secular public at large, and we have to get back to normal life slowly/
6/ but for now at least California was forced in this lawsuit to admit that socially distanced worship in drive-up service settings was permissible, which is a big improvement over the status quo for the past 6 weeks. We will keep fighting for more freedom for people of faith./
7/ We've also sued the Governor in an emergency writ over his decision to give $75 million of the appropriated disaster relief funds from California, to undocumented workers in lieu of the unemployment benefits they can't get because they are not working legally. Stay tuned ....
8/ Meanwhile, if you believe in liberty and would like to do something about it rather than remain trapped in your home as your business, your job, your net worth, your future goes down the drain, consider supporting our work at libertycenter.org -- we need your help!
