Governor Newsom Lifts COVID-19 Restrictions on Churches

On the heels of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last Friday, Gov. Gavin Newsom lifted restrictions on indoor church capacity.

“Location and capacity limits on places of worship are not mandatory, but are strongly recommended,” the new guidance said.

The guidance also said the changes were “in response to recent judicial rulings, effective immediately.”

On Friday, the High Court ruled that the state cannot enforce restrictions on at-home Bible studies.

In the 5-4 ruling, the conservative judges sided against the restrictions while Chief John Roberts sided with the three liberal justices.

“California’s Blueprint System contains myriad exceptions and accommodations for comparable activities, thus requiring the application of strict scrutiny,” the order reads. “And historically, strict scrutiny requires the State to further ‘interests of the highest order’ by means ‘narrowly tailored in pursuit of those interests.’”

The ruling comes as the state loosened restrictions on church attendance and prepares to completely reopen in June.

Additional changes are scheduled to go into effect this week that will loosen restrictions on gatherings and some indoor events.

The ruling allows Pasadena’s Harvest Rock Church to open its doors to a full congregation. The church continued to meet illegally during the pandemic and lost several court cases during the battle to have the guidelines lifted.

Last week, lawyers for the Pasadena church once again filed for an emergency injunction by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth District against the restrictions.

That filing came after a judge asked for information about the guidelines, but declined to lift them.

“Plaintiffs have scratched and clawed for lasting relief for 259 days, and this Court should issue an injunction pending appeal against the Governor’s continued imposition of discriminatory restrictions on religious worship services while exempting myriad secular gatherings from any restrictions whatsoever and permitting other nonreligious gatherings and industries to meet with more favorable capacity restrictions than those imposed on Appellants’ religious worship services,” states a brief filed on April 2.

On a 6-3 vote in February, the Supreme Court cited the Constitution’s protection of the free exercise of religion and ruled that the church could open its doors to 200 members in the orange tier, but regulations upheld prohibitions against singing and chanting remaining in place.