The Department of Justice (DOJ) is siding with a Virginia church that filed a lawsuit against the state over Gov. Ralph Northam’s (D) stay-at-home order restricting in-person religious services to no more than 10 people amid the coronavirus outbreak. The Lighthouse Fellowship Church, a congregation in Chincoteague, Va., filed the suit after its pastor received a criminal citation for holding a church service with 16 people in attendance in early April. The church requested a temporary restraining order and an injunction to pause enforcement of the governor’s policy. On Sunday, lawyers from the Justice Department filed a statement of interest supporting the church’s action. The department argued that the church had a "strong case" because Northam’s executive order allowed other venues, such as liquor stores and law offices, to hold gatherings with more than 10 people. "Permitting similar opportunities for in-person gatherings of more than 10 individuals, while at the same time prohibiting churches from gathering in groups of more than 10 — even with social distancing measures and other precautions — has impermissibly interfered with the church’s free exercise of religion,” DOJ said in the filing. "Unless the Commonwealth can prove that its disparate treatment of religious gatherings […]
