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Liberty Council will appeal the Kentucky church lockdown
case. We're gonna be talking about this on
faith and Freedom. My Met S, founder and
Chairman of Liberty. Counsel. Joining me is Holly
made. You know, Matt, it seems like a
lifetime ago we were dealing with the situation.
In fact it was Easter of 20 20.
When the police officer showed up at Mary
Baptist Church in Kentucky and told these parish
that they could not worship in the church
or even in the parking lot, and they
were threatening them with a violation, I believe
if they did so. Yes. The governor actually
had
issued an executive order.
Governor
Bash.
And he
is a democrat that was
somebody who had previously
given
accommodation to his,
attorney general on the same sex marriage issue.
Mh. But he would not give any a
accommodation here
with regards to the issue of religious freedom.
In fact, he did exactly the opposite. He
issued this order, and he said no in
person
and no parking lots services, no parking lot
services. But, yeah, People were showing up at
these big box stores, home depot what have
you going in there as as usual.
That was okay, but church was not. He
actually warned people that he would send out
the state troopers.
If anybody went to church
on Easter.
And so this was Easter Sunday,
and doc Jack Roberts is the pastor had
been the longtime pastor of Mary Baptist Church.
And so they set up
sir speakers out in the parking lot outside
the church,
while he was inside speaking,
and people then would drive into the parking
lot, and they would be able to hear
the message over the loud speakers. But I
don't know. The police officers were putting notices
on their car, requiring them what to show
up at the health department every day to
do testing and whatnot? Yeah. The actual straight.
Police officers actually came to the parking lot,
while these people were in their car. With
their windows With their windows rolled up,
And How
would
put these
citations on their windshield.
Even remember of the media even showed up,
and they gave me
citation. Yes. I know.
That was crazy. The... Media...
We have a photograph of the media van
with a citation on its front window.
And so what the citation said is that
They were in violation of the governor's executive
order
and that they had to quarantine
for 14 days, and anybody in their vehicle
had to quarantine for 14 days. But they
had to go for testing every day. They
had to go
every day, 14 and Been travel out of
town out of state... You travel out of
their prisoners. Out of their county. Yeah.
They couldn't use public
transportation. Mh. So they couldn't use anything
that would be public transportation, which means, they
couldn't even
use
A911
call
to have an ambulance pick them up and
go to the hospital. Unless they first got
permission,
from the department of health of the state
of Kentucky. But don't forget. They could go
across the street to Lowe's or Home Depot
and get their pot plants. The same people
problem would have driven just very close to
that church to a home depot. They could
have jammed the parking lot on that Easter
Sunday morning. That could have turned on their
radios
parked side by side and listened to the
pastor preaching on the radio. Right. And ours
wasn't the only church this has happened to.
Several of them they were showing up doing
the same thing. Yeah. So we ended up
filing
a an emergency
injunction we lost at the lower court.
And the Democrat appointed
judge ruled against us. We appealed that as
an emergency appeal to the 6 circuit court
of appeals. We got a 3 to 0
decision
that granted us the right to have the
parking lot services.
And then the court
wanted some additional information on the in person
service
inside the church.
We came back a week later, got a
3 to 0 decision on the in person
inside the church
worship.
And then
the court of appeals also ruled that the
lower court judge should issue a preliminary injunction
to us as well. And so was forced
to issue the preliminary injunction on our behalf
in favor of the
church And consequently, they were able to worship
without these
Draco hone restrictions. And, you know when the
word got around, people came from out of
town out of state to come worship at
this church in support of what they were
doing and the pastor, doctor Jack Roberts. Yeah.
So they did. The amazing thing is that
we had a couple of people that were
fired
that were attending that church.
From their employees. From their employers. Wow. Because
they went back to work on Monday,
and
people in their office realized, oh, you're a
member of Mary V baptist Church.
You went to this in person. You went
into this
worship service. Well, it was 10. It was
in they were in the cars,
and their windows were rolled up. And
they fired them. I think 2 people got
fired. I know 1 person. I believe 2
people got fired at different employers. They fired
them
because of the
Stigma that had been placed on them by
the governor
because what happened is, owe, these people, they're
violating the governor's executive order. And now they
have
met for worship. Well, they were in cars,
and they might be careers of this Covid
virus because they met in cars. And now
they've got a citation and that citation is
that they need to quarantine
Well, what are they doing at work? Well,
they have no symptoms.
They were not out of their cars.
That was a bogus order, but they actually
lost their jobs. Wow.
So this was the nonsense that was going
on 4 years ago, Holly. It's hard to
believe that was
a surreal time. So At had any rate.
We end up,
then getting these injunction,
the executive orders are finally rep peeled because
you got court orders against
those executive orders.
This particular case that we brought up to
the court of appeals was the first
case to reach the court of appeals in
the country and Liberty Council was part of
that very first court of appeals win against
any locked down order in the entire nation.
Okay. But in this case, the sixth circuit
said that the church in the pastor were
the... Are the prevailing party us and should
be entitled to attorney's fees and cost. But
yet the the lower court judge
denied that. Well, what happened is, there were
some people from another location that were not
members of the church. Mh.
And they came to the church
on a subsequent time or they said they
wanted to come and visit the church. And
they had a separate lawsuit. So they had
a separate lawsuit.
And they went to a separate judge,
and they got a
an injunction like we did as well,
after we did, we got the first injunction.
So they got an injunction later,
but their judge in a different part of
the place of Kentucky
said you're entitled to prevailing party status and
you are entitled to attorney's fees.
The state of Kentucky appealed that to the
sixth circuit.
They argue that, no. You're not entitled to
attorney's fees. The 6 circuit could have appeal
said, oh, yes, you are because you got
this injunction.
We then
had our case, go back down to the
lower court because our case was up on
appeal. The judge had denied our
right to pursue attorney's fees say that we
weren't prevailing parties that the injunction... Yeah. We
had an injunction for sure, but the governor
just rep peeled
the mandate. So
the case is moved. The 6 circuit said
no. Send it back down to the judge,
reconsider all this in light of what we.
Right Look at this other case And all
inside. Same price
the same church. Right. The same exact issues.
Affirming that they are prevailing party
and that they are entitled trans fees. So
our judge, it should have been a rubber
stamp. Right. A new brainer. Right. Yeah. As
we say. And so,
unfortunately, what happened in our case is the
judge
issues another ruling.
The judge issues another ruling and says,
no. You're not entitled to a prevailing party
status.
Intention did not change
the status. Well, no. It did.
It did.
And the court of appeals has already indicated
that it did. So now, you know? Here
we go again. Here we go. Racking up
more fees I would think we're... Yeah. Racking
up more attorney's fees because we're putting more
time in it. So we're back up now
to the same 6 circuit court of appeals
to appeal again,
And how many times have we've been to
the court of appeals on this case? This
is gonna to be the second time on
the attorney's fees issue prevailing part status. We
went to the court of appeals to at
least to maybe 3 times before. This might
have been our fifth time at the court
of deals. Getting the court of appeals
to overturn the lower court judge. You think
they just get the judge on the phone
in listen. Would you do the right thing
here? Come on. Was that ridiculous. Yeah. It
should have been a no brainer. And... But
here we are. We're back up on appeal.
Pray for the case because justice needs to
be served. Right absolutely. Governor Bash shares issued
an unconstitutional order. It resulted in harm. Some
people lost their jobs over there. And we
need an injunction so this doesn't happen again.
And they need to pay for their
constitutional actions so that this sends a message
loud and clear. For more information, Got to
Council's website l c dot org.
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