DOVER, Del. — Two Delaware pastors are asking a court to issue a permanent injunction prohibiting Democratic Gov. John Carney and his successors from exercising emergency powers that would restrict religious gatherings and practices. In separate Chancery Court lawsuits filed Wednesday, the clerics also seek a declaration that Carney’s previous COVID-19 restrictions on religious practices were unconstitutional. The lawsuits were filed on behalf of the Rev. Alan Hines, pastor of Townsend Free Will Baptist Church, and the Rev. David Landow, pastor of Emmanuel Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Wilmington. They seek to prohibit any Delaware governor from issuing an order during an emergency that would prohibit in-person religious worship or rituals such as baptism and Communion, limit preaching or singing, restrict worship attendance based on age or health condition, or favor one religion over another. The complaints were filed a little more than a year after the settlement of a federal lawsuit in which another pastor had challenged Carney’s coronavirus restrictions as unconstitutional. Carney rescinded many of the restrictions after the federal lawsuit was filed, and his lawyers argued that the claims were moot. But the plaintiff’s attorneys, some of whom are also involved in the lawsuits filed Wednesday, asked […]
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