Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has been dealt the jurisprudential blow she deserves.
As Hill Faith reports, on Friday afternoon U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Trevor McFadden ruled in favor of the historic Capitol Hill Baptist Church in its request for a preliminary injunction against the Bowser’s ban on congregational meetings of more than 100 people.
’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,’ McFadden wrote.
Bowser issued her unconstitutional and tyrannical edict in March, banning church meetings of 100 or more people indoors or outdoors, regardless of whether churchgoers wore magic masks or engaged in government-ordained anti-social distancing. And such an edict would be bad enough, since it stands in contravention of much of the Bill of Rights, but, as we have noted here at MRCTV, Bowser made it even worse by imposing different standards to other kinds of gatherings, as well as literally participating in Black Lives Matter protest marches.
And in a nation which is supposed to maintain a legal standard of religious freedom, blocking the peaceful gathering of willing worship participants doesn’t seem to be in line with that standard.
Thankfully, a few people in the US government recognized this fact, and, as Hill Faith notes:
Amicus briefs supporting CHBC were filed earlier this month by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and 34 Republican senators. The church, which is represented by the Plano, Texas-based First Liberty Institute, filed suit only after six months of seeking a compromise with D.C. officials proved futile.
Surely, surely, all those supposed “free speech” leftists were on the side of the church, right?
Right?
(Just wait for the tumbleweeds to pass, here…)
Said Judge McFadden on Friday afternoon:
The District’s current restrictions substantially burden the church’s exercise of religion. 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.
So, unless the Mayor wants to send cops to arrest churchgoers, then see said churchgoers released and see even more lawsuits against her D.C. government, Bowser might want to back off.
In other areas of the U.S. where courts have ruled against lockdowns – places such as Michigan and Pennsylvania – it looks like the leftist governors are feverish to continue their tyrannical mandates and keep fear high. And one wonders if they’re doing this to carry the edicts and fearmongering to November 3 in some attempt to continue pushing "threat" of the “virus” and a “need” for mail-in balloting that is easier to manipulate.
That’s merely speculation, but reality is staring at these petty tyrants, and anyone who understands liberty and justice will not look upon their slippery edicts with anything close to kindness.
Christian virtue tells us to forgive the trespasses of others, but that doesn’t mean we should sit back and let them trespass on individual rights and free will.
The eternal fight for those God-given human attributes belongs to us, in every age, and it’s essential that we work to recognize mankind’s dignity. This ruling is a hint of how far some politicians will go to crush it.