Federal Judge Invalidates Louisville Mayor’s Order to Profile Christians for Worshiping on Easter

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Apr 13, 2020

A federal judge has invalidated the order of the Louisville, Ky., Mayor to profile churchgoers on Easter Sunday to potentially punish them for celebrating the Resurrection of Christ.

U.S. District Judge Justin Walker, who was appointed to the bench by President Donald Trump, rebuked Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer in his decision that he issued on Saturday. He issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) against Fischer that prevented him from intimidating and harassing Christians on their holiest of days.

“On Holy Thursday, an American mayor criminalized the communal celebration of Easter. That sentence is one that this Court never expected to see outside the pages of a dystopian novel, or perhaps the pages of The Onion. But two days ago, citing the need for social distancing during the current pandemic, Louisville’s Mayor Greg Fischer ordered Christians not to attend Sunday services, even if they remained in their cars to worship – and even though it’s Easter,” Judge Walker wrote in his opinion on Saturday.

“The Mayor’s decision is stunning,” he added. “And it is, “beyond all reason,” unconstitutional.”

The request for the TRO came from On Fire Christian Church, who sued Fischer and the Louisville city government alleging massive constitutional violations pertaining to religious liberty. Judge Walker agreed wholeheartedly with their argument.

Because of Judge Walker’s decision, the Louisville city government is now officially banned from “enforcing; attempting to enforce; threatening to enforce; or otherwise requiring compliance with any prohibition on drive-in church services at On Fire.” Many Kentucky residents and individuals in other states plan to attend drive-in church services in order to protect themselves during worship services on Easter Sunday.

On Friday, Fischer announced that churchgoers would be profiled and potentially be subject to sanctions if they attended worship services on Easter Sunday. He was instructing law enforcement to take down the license plate numbers of people congregating at church so they could be identified and possibly punished by the state for professing their faith.

“If we allowed this in Louisville, we’d have hundreds of thousands of people driving around the city Sunday, and boy, the virus would just love that,” Fischer said to justify his decision to steamroll over the 1st Amendment of the Constitution.

“If they’re out, they clearly don’t understand the danger of congregating and being out,” he added.

Unfortunately for Fischer, a rule-of-law judge prevented him from implementing tyranny over his town. President Donald Trump’s remaking of the courts is paying dividends and protecting the rights of the people during the coronavirus pandemic.