Church, Cologne Germany. (Photo: Katy Grimes) The Cross Culture Christian Center in Lodi and Cornerstone Church in Fresno just won large lawsuits against Gov. Gavin Newsom, whose statewide COVID shutdown orders included churches. “Although Plaintiffs appreciate the government’s significant interest in and efforts to protect the health and safety of its citizens, a pandemic does not delegate to the Defendants unlimited power to indefinitely restrict and suppress fundamental and inalienable constitutional rights and civil liberties, including the free exercise of religion, peaceable assembly, freedom of speech and the protections afforded by the Establishment Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment,” the lawsuit says. “One of the first federal lawsuits challenging government restrictions imposed on places of worship in California settled in favor of the plaintiff churches this week – Cross Culture Christian Center et al v. Newsom et al , Dean Broyles at The National Center for Law & Policy reported Tuesday. “The federal civil rights lawsuit, filed early in the pandemic on April 22, 2020, was resolved in the middle of the churches’ appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.” “This settlement is yet another big win for the First Amendment, […]
