Los Angeles County Health Department has finally dropped the county’s COVID unconstitutional limits on religious gatherings and removed attendance caps on worship effective December 19.
LA County Public Health Department issued a Revised Temporary Order that specifies that houses of worship in Los Angeles can now conduct services indoors with no numerical or percentage caps and only social distancing between separate households.
Liberty Counsel represents Harvest Rock Church, which has two campuses in Los Angeles County, and Harvest International Ministry, with more than half of the member churches in the same county.
County officials reversed course and took this action because of the recent ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court granting an emergency petition for an injunction pending appeal on behalf of New York City synagogues and Roman Catholic churches in Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo and Agudath Israel v. Cuomo. The High Court also vacated the lower court orders involving the emergency petition in Liberty Counsel’s case of Harvest Rock Church and Harvest International Ministry. As a result, houses of worships in other states have now received favorable court decisions regarding unconstitutional worship bans.
Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “We are grateful for the U.S. Supreme Court’s rulings that are resulting in the unconstitutional worship bans falling like dominoes. The Supreme Court has made it very clear that the courts and the states must begin applying the First Amendment to protect houses of worship. No pastor, church, or parishioner in America should have to choose between worship and prison.”
