Court weighs in on applying mass gathering ban to churches

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A federal appeals court on Saturday declined to block the Kentucky governor's temporary ban on massing gatherings from applying to in-person religious services.

The three-judge panel did clear the way for Maryville Baptist Church to hold drive-in worship services while adhering to public health requirements. That's an alternative that Gov. Andy Beshear has strongly encouraged throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

But the panel stopped short of applying its order to in-person worship services.

The ruling came soon after the church asked the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for an emergency order stopping Beshear's mass gathering ban from being enforced against religious services.

“We realize that this falls short of everything the church has asked for and much of what it wants,"' the Cincinnati-based appeals court panel said Saturday. “But that is all we are comfortable doing after the 24 hours the plaintiffs have given us with this case.

It urged a federal district judge to “prioritize resolution" of the church's claims in its lawsuit.

Beshear recently announced that places of worship in Kentucky will be able to once again hold in-person services starting May 20. It's part of a broader plan to gradually reopen the state's economy. Exceptions to his shutdown order include trips to the grocery store, bank, pharmacy and hardware store.

In Saturday’s opinion, the judges took note of those “secular exceptions.”

“The breadth of the ban on religious services, together with a haven for numerous secular exceptions, should give pause to anyone who prizes religious freedom,” the panel wrote, before concluding “it’s not always easy to decide what is Caesar’s and what is God’s — and that’s assuredly true in the context of a...