In Bormuth v. Whitmer, (ED MI, July 12, 2021), a Michigan federal magistrate judge denied plaintiff's motion to file a supplemental complaint in a challenge to a portion of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer's now-rescinded COVID-19 Orders. At issue was an exemption from penalties for violation of stay-at-home orders by places of religious worship that allowed worship services, or by individuals travelling to places of worship. The court said in part:
The exemptions from prosecution for places of religious worship and their owners caused no harm to Plaintiff; if anything, they provided a protection to him. Under the exemptions, he enjoyed the freedom to practice his own religion at any indoor or outdoor “place of religious worship” without fear of prosecution....
The exemptions at issue neither established a state religion, nor favored particular religions, nor inhibited Plaintiff’s own free expression of genuinely-held religious beliefs. Indeed, the exemptions protected his expression of such beliefs....
Plaintiff’s proposed supplemental complaint still fails to demonstrate standing on the basis of a “concrete, particularized, and actual or imminent” injury... His proposed supplemental pleading will not cure the lack of justiciability identified in my prior report and recommendation.
