Targeted with a “cease and desist order” and fearing criminal or civil actions, officials at the Beloved Church in northern Illinois’ Stevenson County filed a federal lawsuit accusing the state of violating members’ First Amendment right to religious freedom by banning church services. The Rev. Steve Cassell, represented by the Thomas More Society, asked U.S. Judge John Lee to order state officials not to enforce the ban ordered by Gov. J.B. Pritzker to limit the spread of the coronavirus. Instead, Lee upheld the governor’s authority to restrict church services, holding that freedom of religion is “not without limits” and “subject to restriction if necessary to further compelling government interests” that include “the prevention of mass infections and death.” Lee’s decision sheds some light on the legal back-and-forth now underway in connection with the governor’s three lockdown orders that have dramatically restricted citizen and business freedoms and wrecked the state’s economy. A federal court decision in Kentucky overturned its governor’s ban on religious services. Pritzker’s ban also might have been stricken if he had not modified it after the lawsuit was filed by permitting drive-in services and gatherings of no more than 10 people observing social-distancing rules. Previously banned drive-in […]
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