SAN JOSE, Calif. — Following a new court order Wednesday night, Santa Clara County’s ban on indoor religious services has been reinstated.
If you’re struggling to keep up with the ever-changing regulations on worship services in Silicon Valley, you’re surely not alone.
Over the course of the past six days, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 late Friday that Gov. Gavin Newsom’s strict order barring indoor religious services appeared to violate the Constitution’s protection of the free exercise of religion. Churches and religious institutions across the state were immediately permitted to reopen for indoor services up to 25% of the building capacity. Singing and chanting could still be prohibited.
Santa Clara County, however, was the only county in the state arguing that the high court’s ruling did not apply to it.
Unlike the state, Santa Clara County prohibited all indoor gatherings — regardless of whether they’re related to religion — rather than instituting a specific ban on indoor religious services. And that’s the distinction the county made to justify its stance up until Monday evening.
On Monday, five Santa Clara County churches filed a motion in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to attempt to block the county’s ban, arguing that the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling must apply to the county, and a U.S. District Court judge granted an injunction to temporarily block the county’s ban on indoor worship services.
Then Wednesday night, in an about-face, the U.S. District Court temporarily suspended its Monday order, concluding that the county’s prohibition on all indoor gatherings — including indoor religious services — could remain in place for the time being. The court will make a final decision on this issue in the coming days after further briefing and a hearing before the court.
“We are pleased that the Court has given us an opportunity to fully brief and argue the important legal and public health issues at stake in this case,” County Counsel James Williams said in a press release. “The county’s rules prohibiting indoor gatherings are even-handed, designed to reduce the likelihood of superspreader events and other transmission of COVID-19, and apply to all gatherings, regardless of their purpose”
The court decision stems from an ongoing lawsuit brought against Newsom, Santa Clara County and County Health Officer Sara Cody by a group of five county churches in late November.
The churches are San Jose’s Gateway City Church and The Spectrum Church, Campbell’s The Home Church and Orchard Community Church and Morgan Hill’s Trinity Bible Church. They have long argued the county has lacked scientific backing to justify its ban on indoor worship services and that it is unlawfully denying the churches’ rights to peacefully assemble and freely exercise their religion.
The county argues that indoor gatherings are one of its top concerns in light of new variants discovered in the U.S. and in Santa Clara County specifically. On Wednesday, Newsom announced that scientists at Stanford University detected two cases of the worrisome South African strain of coronavirus, which appears to be more contagious and more resistant to some vaccines, in California. One case was detected in Santa Clara County and one in Alameda County.
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