Nevada church resumes court battle over COVID-19 rules

RENO, Nev. (AP) — A rural Nevada church is trying again to persuade the 9th U.S. Circuit of Appeals that the state's 50-person cap on religious gatherings is unconstitutional.

Lawyers for Calvary Chapel Dayton Valley filed new briefs with the San Francisco-based appellate court on Wednesday after the Supreme Court narrowly refused in July to grant an emergency order suspending Nevada's COVID-19 church cap.

They're emphasizing the three dissenting opinions from the high court's 5-4 decision in their latest bid to prove that parishioners' religious freedoms are being violated partly because casinos and other secular businesses are allowed to operate at 50% capacity.

The Lyon County church wants to allow as many as 90 people to attend services at the same time — with masks required, spaced 6-feet apart — at the sanctuary east of Reno with a capacity of 200.

Its lawyers say Gov. Steve Sisolak’s claim that the hard cap on churches is needed to guard against the spread of COVID-19 “defies reason.”

“A casino entertaining 1,000 gamblers has no impact on public health while Calvary Chapel increasing its service size from 50 people to 90 would cripple the state’s health effort?" they asked in Wednesday's filing accusing the state of putting profits ahead of the First Amendment.

“It has everything to do with Nevada’s person-based tourism economy,” they said.

The high court’s decision followed the 9th Circuit’s refusal to grant temporary injunctive relief after a federal judge in Reno upheld the state policy in May and again in June.

“Calvary and its counsel should not be allowed to continually second-guess Nevada’s efforts to protect public health against a novel, highly contagious virus,” Deputy Solicitor General Craig Newby wrote in...