Worshippers gather at South Bay Pentecostal Church in a 2019 photo posted to Facebook. SAN DIEGO, California, May 25, 2020 ( LifeSiteNews ) – Southern California’s South Bay Pentecostal Church has petitioned the United States Supreme Court to intervene and issue an emergency injunction against Governor Gavin Newsom’s shutdown of churches. The church’s attorneys are arguing that Newsom’s shutdown of religious worship in the state is a blatant violation of the First Amendment’s constitutional guarantee that citizens may freely exercise their religious faith So far, the South Bay United Pentecostal Church and its Senior Pastor, Bishop Arthur Hodges III, have not prevailed in their lawsuit before both San Diego’s federal district court and the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. In the 9th Circuit the church lost on emergency appeal, 2-1 before a three-judge panel. Judge Daniel Collins sided with the church, filing a powerful 15-page dissent that declared the church deserves the relief it seeks. The South Bay United Pentecostal Church is asking to hold in-person worship services, fully subject to social distancing and other contagion-mitigation steps. The church is represented by LiMandri & Jonna, doing pro bono work in Rancho Santa Fe, California, as the Freedom of […]
