A Chicago federal judge has ruled Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s orders barring churches from assembling for worship services under his emergency powers during the COVID-19 pandemic does not run afoul of the religious and assembly rights of churches or their congregants.
On May 13, U.S. District Judge Robert W. Gettleman denied a request for a temporary restraining order sought by two churches – one in Chicago and the other in suburban Niles – blocking Pritzker from continuing to bar churches and other religious assemblies from meeting in Illinois.
The judge ruled churches can be prevented from meeting because churches present infection risks greater than big box retail stores or supermarkets.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker
He said this risk of spreading COVID-19 outweighs any harm the churches and their congregants may suffer by having their rights to worship and assemble restricted by the governor’s executive orders.
“The harm to (the churches) if the Order is enforced pales in comparison to the dangers to society if it is not. The record clearly reveals how virulent and dangerous COVID-19 is, and how many people have died and continue to die from it,” Judge Gettleman wrote in his order.
“Plaintiffs’ request for an injunction, and their blatant refusal to follow the mandates of the Order are both ill-founded and selfish. An injunction would risk the lives of plaintiffs’ congregants, as well as the lives of their family members, friends, co-workers and other members of their communities with whom they come in contact. Their interest in communal services cannot and does not outweigh the health and safety of the public.”
Gettleman has served as a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois since he was appointed in 1994 by President Bill Clinton.
The ruling marks the second time a federal judge in the Northern District of Illinois has refused to back churches asserting Pritzker’s rules, which have kept churches across the state from assembling for worship services since early March, are constitutional.
U.S. District Judge John Z. Lee earlier this month sided with Pritzker in denying a similar restraining order requested by a church in Stephenson County in northwest Illinois.
In that decision, Lee also determined that the risk of infection from COVID-19 allows the governor to act unilaterally to restrict religious assembly rights, for as long as the governor believes a health emergency exists.
The church, known as The Beloved Church in Lena, has appealed that ruling to the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
In the case before Judge Gettleman, Pritzker had been sued by two congregations – Logos Baptist Ministries, of Niles, and Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church, of Chicago – who alleged the governor’s executive orders restricting churches from gathering in person is an “unconstitutional sham.”
They asserted both the governor’s current order, which limits gatherings to no more than 10 people, and his “Restore Illinois” plan, which forbids no gatherings greater than 50 people until a vaccine or “effective treatment” for COVID-19 comes into widespread use, are both “constitutionally infirm.”
They said Pritzker has discriminated against churches by treating them differently than big-box retail stores and other businesses deemed “essential,” which routinely bring in crowds of much more than 10 people on a daily basis.
Judge Gettleman, however, like Judge Lee in The Beloved Church case, determined churches should not be compared to retailers and “essential businesses,” but rather to theaters and schools, both of which have been ordered closed by the governor.
Gettleman also blasted the churches for holding services without permission from the governor. He called out one of the congregations for allegedly not practicing "social distancing" or requiring congregants to wear face coverings during Sunday worship services, which lasted nearly two hours. Attorneys for the governor had provided the judge with photos published by the Chicago Sun-Times, allegedly taken within the church during the services this past Sunday.
The two churches have filed a notice of appeal to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.