After fines were levied against members of Temple Baptist Church for holding a drive-in church service, the Alliance for Defending Freedom has filed suit in the Northern District Court of Mississippi.The suit was filed on Good Friday, April 10.
The federal government, through the Department of Justice, issued a statement of interest Tuesday.
Greenville Mayor Errick Simmons said Tuesday the order will remain in place.
“We are in a health pandemic. Leaders globally and nationally, in consultation with health experts, have asked all of us to contain the virus, save, and protect lives. In Greenville, we are doing what we can, to do, just that,” Simmons said. “The council received many calls about violations of in-person church services and drive-in church services because church members got out of their cars. Until the council reconsiders or changes the current order, it stands. People are dying.”
The suit alleges the fines — which have since been rescinded — violate the civil rights of the members of the church.
According the lawsuit, “The scene was both shocking and humiliating. Plaintiffs are good citizens and valuable members of the Greenville community. Temple Baptist Church has been serving the Greenville community for almost 65 years, and Pastor Scott has been leading the church for 45 years.”
The lawsuit also says the church officers did what they felt was enough to protect the health and safety of their parishioners and the community.
The lawsuit added the city chose to make an example of the church by sending eight officers to disrupt the service.
Simmons said, in a press conference Monday, there was no intent to target the church.
The lawsuit claims the city violated the First Amendment including the right to assemble, the right to free speech and the free exercise of religion as well as the violation of the 14th amendment’s guarantee of procedural due process. Other charges include violations of the Mississippi Religious Freedom Restoration Act and Gov. Tate Reeve’s executive orders 1463 and 1466.
The statement of interest from the Department of Justice argues: “There is no pandemic exception, however, to the fundamental liberties the Constitution safeguards. Indeed, ‘individual rights secured by the Constitution do not disappear during a public health crisis.’ These individual rights, including the protections in the Bill of Rights made applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment, are always in force and restrain government action.”
“At the same time, the Constitution does not hobble government from taking necessary, temporary measures to meet a genuine emergency.”
Ryan Tucker, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Temple Baptist Church, said he was pleased the administration noticed the case as he read the statement of interest for the first time as it appeared in his email inbox.
“In Greenville, you can be in your car with the windows rolled down at a drive-in restaurant, but you can’t be in your car with the windows rolled up at a drive-in church service,” said Tucker, who, though he lives in Arizona, has visited Greenville several times when family lived close by.
