California churches win $2M in legal fees in COVID closure lawsuits

The state of California has reached settlements in two cases that challenged restrictions on religious gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic and will pay over $2 million in legal fees to two churches, according to a report.

The Golden State has also agreed that any restrictions it orders for church gatherings won’t be greater than those it imposes on retail businesses, Fox News reported.

San Diego area South Bay United Pentecostal Church and Kern County Catholic priest the Rev. Trevor Burfitt separately sued Gov. Gavin Newson for barring indoor religious gatherings while stores and public transit were able to operate at limited capacity, the outlet reported.

South Bay United’s case moved all the way up to the US Supreme Court, where it won in February with the court finding that the state violated the First Amendment, according to the report.

The decision prompted the state to lift limits on indoor religious gatherings in April, making the settlement largely moot. But the state has agreed to pay out $1.6 million in legal fees for the South Bay United case and $550,000 in the Burfitt case, the outlet reported.

South Bay United’s win in the high court sets a precedent for future restrictions even if the settlement itself only applies to the coronavirus pandemic, the news site reported, citing plaintiff lawyer Paul Jonna.

“If they’re gonna restrict Costco to 50%, then they can do the same thing to churches,” Jonna told the outlet. “But what they were doing before, as you may remember, is they were keeping those places open and they were shutting down churches — at least in California — completely.”

The state, which was the first state to issue lockdown orders in March, is set to lift all restrictions on June 15 amid widespread vaccinations and falling COVID-19 rates.