Pro-Abortion Democrat Governor Laura Kelly of Kansas has ordered churches to shut down while leaving abortion clinics open on the grounds that abortion is a “constitutionally protected right,” sparking controversy from the faithful in the state who wish to continue to hold their constitutionally-protected church services.
First Baptist Church pastored by Stephen Ormord along with Calvary Baptist Church, pastored by Aaron Harris filed a complaint in district court against the governor seeking a restraining order against her on the grounds that “enforcement of restrictions on religious activity in Defendant Governor Laura Kelly’s Executive Order (“EO”) 20-18 would violate Plaintiffs’ rights, including their First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion.”
Previously, the Kansas Supreme Court upheld Kelly’s executive order after she sued GOP lawmakers on the grounds that the Kansas legislative council did not have the authority to stop her order after seeking to do so. At the time, religious freedom was not part of the complaint. However, in the new lawsuit, religious freedom is the issue and that district court has ordered Kelly to stop restricting churches from meeting.
The Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Ryan Tucker told LifeNews:
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“Singling out churches for special punishment while allowing others to have greater freedom is both illogical and unconstitutional. We’re pleased that the court halted the governor from subjecting our clients to that type of targeting and agreed that the churches are likely to prevail on their claim that doing so violates the First Amendment. The order specifies that our clients are to abide by their own proposed, rigorous social distancing practices for the time being while our case continues in court, which these churches are obviously happy to do, since they proposed those rules themselves for everyone’s health and safety. In light of the court’s order, we hope the governor will act quickly to remedy the unconstitutional provision of her mass gathering ban and avoid the need for continued litigation.”
The court has also ordered that the churches choosing to meet must follow strict cleaning and social distancing guidelines which are outlined in the complaint that was filed by the two churches.
