Andrew Wommack gives a tour of the campus of Charis Bible College in Woodland Park in this Gazette file photo. A U.S. Denver District Court judge denied Andrew Wommack Ministries’ request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to override Colorado’s 175-person limit on religious gatherings under COVID-19 restrictions. Doing so would "present a high risk of harm to the state of Colorado as well as the public in general," U.S. District Judge Christine Arguello wrote in her seven-page order of denial. Liberty Counsel, a conservative nonprofit legal organization based in Orlando, Fla., is appealing the ruling, sending the case to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. Attorneys are requesting an immediate injunction, pending appeal, Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, said in a statement. "The virus does not discriminate between nonreligious gatherings, but Gov. Jared Polis does," he said. The organization filed a lawsuit on Wommack’s behalf on Monday, claiming Gov. Jared Polis and state and local health departments unjustly set “arbitrarily imposed numerical limitations” under COVID-19 constraints, including the cap on large gatherings, calling them unconstitutional and in violation of First Amendment rights. The legal action materialized a week before Wommack’s annual Pastor’s Conference, […]
