SANTA CLARA COUNTY – The California Supreme Court on Wednesday denied Santa Clara County’s petition to reinstate greater than $200,000 in contempt-of-court fines levied towards a San Jose church for defying public well being orders throughout the pandemic.
As a end result, a Sixth District Court of Appeal ruling issued over the summer time will stand. That ruling reversed the fines and annulled contempt of courtroom orders issued in December 2020 and February 2021.
During the primary 12 months of the pandemic, the Santa Clara County Superior Court granted the county a preliminary injunction towards Calvary Chapel to cease holding indoor companies the place congregants weren’t sporting masks, not following social distancing orders and singing – all in violation of public well being necessities on the time.
Calvary Chapel – a non-denominational Christian church with 3,000 congregants – ignored the injunction and was present in contempt of courtroom, ultimately racking up $217,500 in fines.
In its unanimous Aug. 15 ruling, the appeals courtroom cited a slate of U.S. Supreme Court choices in 2021 that favored spiritual freedoms over native well being pointers.
“From these decisions, we understand the U.S. Supreme Court to hold that where a pandemic-related public health order prohibiting indoor gatherings has the effect of prohibiting indoor worship services, the order is not neutral and of general applicability if the public health order permits any other type of indoor secular activity, notwithstanding that secular indoor gatherings are also banned,” Presiding Justice Mary Greenwood wrote in a 36-page opinion.
The order that Calvary Chapel was accused of violating didn’t apply to bus stations, airports, grocery shops, eating places, workplace buildings and retail shops, the ruling stated.
In its petition, the county argued that the appeals courtroom let the church absolutely off the hook for the fines by decoding only a single one among its violations, about capability limits, as unconstitutional.
The church violated a number of public well being orders reminiscent of mask-wearing, the county contended, and due to this fact ought to nonetheless have been held liable for being in contempt of courtroom.
Greenwood famous that the superior courtroom didn’t impose “discrete fines” for any of the violations, writing within the opinion that it “instead imposed a single, aggregate punishment.”
The authorized combat between the county and church started in the summertime of 2020 when Calvary Chapel sued in federal courtroom, claiming that native public well being orders have been violating its proper to maintain church companies.
The county then sued the church in state courtroom, arguing that Calvary Chapel had violated native public well being orders and owed practically $3 million in fines. The case is ongoing.
Check again for updates.