A federal appeals court has denied two Chicago area churches’ request for an emergency injunction to block enforcement of Gov. JB Pritzker’s executive orders prohibiting in-person church worship services in Illinois until the governor determines the COVID-19 emergency has abated.
The short decision from a three-judge panel of the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals comes as the result of an uncommon request from the Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church of Chicago and Logos Baptist Ministries, of Niles, for a court order stopping Pritzker from barring churches from assembling, while the appeals court heard the churches’ appeal of a federal district judge’s ruling upholding Pritzker’s orders.
In the order, the Seventh Circuit panel signaled broad agreement with the legal positions staked out by both the governor and two federal judges who have ruled so far on the question of whether the governor of Illinois has the constitutional authority to close churches during an infectious disease pandemic emergency.
In those rulings, U.S. District Judges John Z. Lee and Robert W. Gettleman each said they believed Pritzker’s orders did not unconstitutionally target religion or religious practices. They also said they believed Pritzker’s decision to allow people to visit big box retail stores, like Walmart or Menards, did not mean Pritzker’s decision to close churches was unconstitutional.
Both judges Lee and Gettleman said they believed churches weren’t comparable to retail stores, but rather should be compared to theaters, which Pritzker also ordered closed.
In the appellate order, the Seventh Circuit judges indicated their general agreement with those findings.
“The Executive Order does not discriminate against religious activities, nor does it show hostility toward religion. It appears instead to impose neutral and generally applicable rules...” the appellate judges wrote. “The Executive Order’s temporary numerical restrictions on public gatherings apply not only to worship services but also to the most comparable types of secular gatherings, such as concerts, lectures, theatrical performances, or choir practices, in which groups of people gather together for extended periods, especially where speech and singing feature prominently and raise risks of transmitting the COVID-19 virus.
“Worship services do not seem comparable to secular activities permitted under the Executive Order, such as shopping, in which people do not congregate or remain for extended periods.”
The appellate order was delivered by Seventh Circuit judges Frank H. Easterbrook, Michael S. Kanne and David F. Hamilton.
The order comes as the latest in the fast-moving court fights between Illinois churches and Pritzker over his executive orders, issued under emergency powers he has wielded since he declared a statewide disaster in March in response to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pritzker asserts his restrictions on religious gatherings are necessary to save lives and slow the spread of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
The churches, however, said Pritzker’s orders represent a “constitutional sham” that tramples on the the free exercise and assembly rights of believers and churchgoers throughout the state.
In addition to the lawsuit brought by the Elim and Logos congregations, Pritzker has also been sued by The Beloved Church, of Lena, in northwest Illinois, and its pastor Stephen Cassell.
Appeals from all three congregations remain pending before the Seventh Circuit.