Alliance Defending Freedom's senior counsel, John Bursch, and other ADF attorneys filed an amicus curiae brief on behalf of 17 Christian schools in Kentucky.
"The Kentucky governor's order allows movie theaters, indoor event venues, gyms, childcare centers, and professional offices to operate, but private Christian schools cannot, even when they comply with all recommended public health and safety guidelines. That's why we are asking (the) high court to put a stop to the governor's unconstitutional edict," Bursch said Dec. 4.
"Government discriminatory treatment of religion must end. Now," the ADF brief in Danville Christian Academy v. Beshear states.
"In the nine months since the COVID-19 pandemic began, state executives have consistently imposed more severe burdens on religious conduct than comparable secular activities. They do so without any showing that religious activities present a greater COVID-19 risk than their secular comparators," ADF added.
"Instead, governments have consistently favored commerce over religion and-often with a judicial seal of approval-have cloaked their disparate treatment of religious worship and education in terms like 'emergency police powers' and 'substantial discretion.'"
Religious schools and churches have also submitted briefs in support of Danville Christian Academy, while a group of church-state scholars wrote one in defense of Beshear.
Beshear defended his order, citing health risks and the order's equal treatment of public and private schools. "Kentucky is in the midst of a deadly third wave of the coronavirus. We have taken the necessary actions to slow the growth in cases and save the lives of our fellow Kentuckians," Beshear said in a Dec. 4 statement, reported by the Courier Journal.