Harvest Rock Church and Harvest International Ministry are seeking an emergency injunction after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals failed to honor a U.S, Supreme Court order on striking down COVID-19 church prohibitions, according to a press release.
“Not all the judges but the Ninth Circuit, in general, has been part of the problem,” Liberty Counsel attorney Matthew Staver said on behalf of Harvest Rock Church. “I've filed five injunctions pending the appeal. The U.S. Supreme Court granted five, set aside all orders, and told the lower courts to follow its previous guidance. It's unprecedented in the history of the U.S. Supreme Court for them to issue so many decisions on the same issue in such a short period of time.”
As previously reported, SCOTUS granted Harvest Rock Church and Harvest International Ministry’s petition for writ of certiorari, which asked that a ban on attending church services be lifted statewide.
“The Ninth Circuit didn't seem to get it so I'm hoping that they're getting it now and if they don't get it, we know where to go to get ultimate relief,” Staver said. “Regarding Governor Newsom though, I think he gets it. He's just defiant. He would keep on violating people's individual rights and religious freedom except for the fact that we've had to go through extraordinary effort to take him to the U.S. Supreme Court on multiple occasions, which is unbelievable.”
Justices who have ruled on Harvest Rock Church et al v. Gavin Newsom since it was filed in December 2020 include Diarmuid O'Scannlain, appointed by former President Ronald Reagan, Johnnie B. Rawlinson, appointed by former President Bill Clinton, and Morgan Christen, appointed by former President Barack Obama.
“There are a couple of judges that have ruled the right way all the time, such as Judge O'Scannlain, but there are other judges with whom we've had two-to-one decisions on every one of our cases and yet we've gotten them reversed every single time at the U.S. Supreme Court,” Staver told the Southern California Record.
Most recently on April 2, Staver requested an emergency injunction from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that, if granted, would permanently "quarantine" Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“We have won all of the capacity restrictions so there are no capacity restrictions anymore but we want the court to issue an injunction that prohibits Gov. Newsom from ever returning to his old unconstitutional ways because he still wants the freedom to be able to go backward and re-evaluate the restrictions depending upon what happens in the future,” Staver said.
Gov. Newsom’s attorneys argued that an emergency injunction is unnecessary because restrictions were lifted and California’s economy is set to fully reopen on June 15 as long as COVID-19 hospitalizations remain low and all state residents 16 or older have access to the vaccine.
“Consequently, Plaintiffs’ request for a temporary, emergency injunction during the pendency of the appeal should be denied because plaintiffs are no longer subject to ‘percentage caps imposed on religious services,’” wrote Seth E. Goldstein, deputy attorney general in the state’s April 12 opposition to emergency motion for injunction pending appeal. “The State has withdrawn mandatory percentage-capacity restrictions on indoor services at houses of worship in all Tiers. As of April 12, 2021, Plaintiffs are thus no longer subject to mandatory limits on attendance during indoor worship.”
However, Staver said the emergency injunction is not moot because a ban on singing and chanting is still in place.
“We included the singing and chanting ban in the emergency injunction because the capacity restrictions did not affect the singing and chanting ban,” he said. “We pointed out how that's discriminatory because the music, entertainment and television production facilities and entities in California receive far better treatment, and always have, then places of worship.”