TRO Issued Against Kentucky In-Person Worship Service Restriction

In Tabernacle Baptist Church, Inc. of Nicholasville, Kentucky v. Beshear, (ED KY, May 8, 2020), a Kentucky federal district court issued a state-wide temporary restraining order enjoining the state of Kentucky from enforcing the governor's COVID-19 ban on mass gatherings with respect to in-person religious services that comply with applicable social distancing and hygiene guidelines. The court said in part:

The prohibition on mass gatherings is not narrowly tailored as required by Lukumi. There is ample scientific evidence that COVID-19 is exceptionally contagious. But evidence that the risk of contagion is heightened in a religious setting any more than a secular one is lacking. If social distancing is good enough for Home Depot and Kroger, it is good enough for in-person religious services which, unlike the foregoing, benefit from constitutional protection.

First Liberty issued a press release announcing the decision.