Attorneys from the Thomas More Society filed an Urgent Motion for an Injunction Pending Appeal with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on December 22, 2020, asking the federal court to allow South Bay United Pentecostal Church to hold Christmas services without fear or threat of repercussion. California’s governor has totally banned indoor worship for 99.9% of the state.

Mere hours before the high Christian holy day of Christmas, the United States District Court for the Southern District of California refused to overturn its earlier order denying the church relief against Governor Gavin Newsom’s COVID-19 prompted discrimination. This was despite instructions from the Ninth Circuit to revisit the case in light of recent United States Supreme Court rulings that upheld religious rights against excesses in gubernatorial power.

The church in Chula Vista, California, has been fighting for the right to hold unrestricted indoor worship, something the governor has criminalized. As the clock ticks toward the worldwide celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, Newsom continues to enforce edicts that are not within his legitimate power to issue.

The South Bay motion emphasizes that the Supreme Court has clearly reinforced the seminal decision that “even in a pandemic, the Constitution cannot be put away and forgotten. The restrictions at issue here, by effectively barring many from attending religious services, strike at the very heart of the First Amendment's guarantee of religious liberty.”

“It was for this reason,” explained Charles LiMandri, partner at LiMandri & Jonna LLP, and Special Counsel for the Thomas More Society, “that the Ninth Circuit – following the Supreme Court’s recent rulings in Harvest Rock Church v. Newsom and Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo – remanded the South Bay matter to the district court. The high court decisions in favor of religious liberty presented a seismic shift in the landscape – including the current abuses of gubernatorial power that are currently oppressing Americans from coast to coast.”

LiMandri added: “Despite the seismic shift, this district court has apparently failed to detect even a tremor affecting its prior errant decision denying South Bay injunctive relief from California’s total ban on indoor worship.”

South Bay United Pentecostal Church’s Bishop Arthur Hodges III observed the enormous gap between California’s almost total prohibition of in-person worship and the state’s embracing of the film industry.

“Judge Cynthia Bashant actually cited ‘music, film, and TV production’ as among essential services permitted to operate indoors, while denying churches the same consideration,” recounted Hodges. “In essence, California is barring us from holding indoor worship, but if Hollywood was making a moving and pretending to hold indoor worship, that would be okay.”

He observed that without relief from the court, South Bay’s best option might be to turn Christmas 2020 worship into a movie production set and bring on a film crew.

Read United States District Court Southern District of California Judge Cynthia Bashant’s order denying the Thomas More Society’s Renewed Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order or Preliminary Injunction, made on behalf of South Bay United Pentecostal Church and Bishop Arthur Hodges III, in South Bay United Pentecostal Church, et al v. Gavin Newsom, et al., issued December 21, 2020, here.

Read the Thomas More Society’s Urgent Motion for an Injunction Pending Appeal Under Circuit Rule 27-3(b) Relief Requested Before Friday, December 25, filed with the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on December 22, 2020, on behalf of South Bay United Pentecostal Church and Bishop Arthur Hodges III, in South Bay United Pentecostal Church, et al v. Gavin Newsom, et al. here.