CNA Staff, Dec 10, 2020 / 12:00 pm
The Governor of Colorado has asked the Supreme Court to drop a church's lawsuit against the state after he lifted COVID-related capacity limits on churches.
On Wednesday, Gov. Jared Polis (D) asked the Supreme Court to drop the appeal of High Plains Harvest Church in Eaton, Colorado, against the state's COVID restrictions. The church had asked for an injunction on the state's order that limited indoor worship to 50 people, in certain areas where the virus was spreading.
In its appeal to the Supreme Court on Dec. 4, the church argued that the state's restrictions were "transparently selective and discriminatory" in subjecting churches to limits that some retail stores were exempted from.
"Today in Colorado it is perfectly legal for hundreds of shoppers to pack themselves cheek by jowl into a Lowes or other big box store or patronize any one of the thousands of other retail establishments that are not subject to draconian numerical limits," the church stated in its brief. "But if 51 people were to meet to worship God in a small rural church in Ault, Colorado, they would do so at the risk of being fined and imprisoned."