DOJ warns San Francisco’s mayor that 1-person limit on church attendance is unconstitutional
The Justice Department has warned San Francisco Mayor London Breed that the city’s limitations on indoor worship to one congregant at a time in response to the COVID-19 pandemic “is contrary to the Constitution and the nation’s best tradition of religious freedom.”
In response to the city's policy of only allowing one person at a time to enter houses of worship, the Justice Department said in its letter to Breed that the city could not limit places of worship to a single congregant while “allowing multiple patrons in other indoor settings including gyms, tattoo parlors, hair salons, massage studios, and daycares.”
The limitation is “draconian, out of step with the treatment afforded other similar indoor activities in San Francisco, wholly at odds with this Nation’s traditional understanding of religious liberty, and may violate the First Amendment to the Constitution,” wrote Assistant Attorney...
Dr. Steven J. Lawson | 10/11/2009
