But the case is not over as the decision was not a ruling on the merits. Late last night, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the four liberal justices and rejected South Bay Pentecostal Church’s emergency appeal to block Governor Newsom’s COVID-19 church restrictions. Charles LiMandri, the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund’s Chief Litigation Counsel,…
This morning, South Bay Pentecostal Church and its pastor, Bishop Arthur Hodges III, filed in the U.S. Supreme Court their reply brief to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s defense of his COVID-19 restrictions on religious services. Last week, South Bay Church and Bishop Hodges filed an emergency appeal to Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan to block the church ban after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the…
This morning, Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund attorneys and co-counsel filed an emergency motion with the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of South Bay United Pentecostal Church and its pastor, Bishop Arthur Hodges III, asking for an injunction to block California Governor Gavin Newsom from enforcing his ban on church services. The attorneys filed the motion hours after the Ninth Circuit denied South Bay Church’s request for an emergency injunction late…
Related Case: South Bay United Pentecostal Church, et al. v. Gavin Newsom, et al. Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund attorneys representing South Bay United Pentecostal Church and its pastor, Bishop Arthur Hodges III, filed an emergency appeal with the Ninth Circuit on Saturday after a San Diego federal judge upheld Governor Newsom’s ban on worship…
South Bay Pentecostal Church and its pastor, Bishop Art Hodges III, filed a civil rights lawsuit on May 11 in San Diego federal court, challenging Governor Gavin Newsom’s series of stay-at-home orders that have banned religious services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Read the Complaint To stem the spread of the coronavirus, Newsom on March 19…
Current anxiety about the COVID-19 pandemic has been multiplied by the suggestion of “health care rationing” based on the age or disability of infected patients. Attorneys representing the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund and the Thomas More Society have published a legal memorandum detailing the tenets of federal law and explaining that federal civil rights…
Today, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights sent a “Notice of Violation” to California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, informing him that the State’s Department of Managed Health Care was violating federal conscience protections by targeting our client, Skyline Wesleyan Church, for its pro-life beliefs. With Planned Parenthood’s lobbying, State bureaucrats…
State bureaucrats refuse to issue a license to open a home for sex-trafficked girls because of the charity’s Catholic beliefs about sexual orientation and abortion. Children of the Immaculate Heart, a Catholic charity that cares for victims of human trafficking, filed an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order in state court today. The charity…
Today, the jury in Planned Parenthood, et al. v. Center for Medical Progress (CMP) found our clients, pro-life journalist David Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress, liable for causing harm to Planned Parenthood. After hearing closing arguments on Tuesday and Wednesday, a panel of 10 jurors deliberated over six weeks worth of testimony for two days…
FCDF attorneys filed yesterday an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of marriage and family scholar Ryan T. Anderson, PhD, asking the Court to reverse two lower court rulings that held Title VII’s definition of “sex” includes “gender identity.” The Court will hear oral arguments in R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes…
