Recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings could breathe new life into a Louisiana pastor's COVID-19 lawsuit.
In the early days of the pandemic, Rev. Tony Spell held service at his Life Tabernacle Church in Baton Rouge in defiance of Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards' COVID-19 public health mandates. He filed a lawsuit challenging the state's health measures which he said violated his constitutional First Amendment rights and also violated the Louisiana Constitution, the Louisiana Record previously reported.
Over time, public health restrictions were loosened so much that the U.S. Middle District of Louisiana Court found Spell's argument for injunctive relief was moot. The Baton Rouge pastor filed an appeal, which the high court rejected last month.
However, recent court victories for religious groups could strengthen Spell’s case.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn’s over New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s COVID-19 restrictions and filed in favor of churches in two similar lawsuits against California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Jeffrey Wittenbrink, an attorney with Wittenbrink Law Firm in Baton Rouge and Spell's attorney in this case, saw this as a big victory for Spell's case.
"It is a big victory because the district court literally thought that we had not even stated a claim and that the governor was within his authority to issue these orders," Wittenbrink told the Louisiana Record. "Therefore we didn't even have a case so he had dismissed us out of hand. If the Fifth Circuit had simply declined to issue a writ or hear us, we would have been dead in the water. We would have been facing trying to appeal a lower decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which would have been extremely difficult. As it stands we're back in court."
Without ruling on the merits of a pastor’s lawsuit against Louisiana’s pandemic restrictions, a trio of appellate judges said the lower court should reconsider Spell's claims for damages in light of recent case law and the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has said U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson should take another look at the pastor’s case.
Wittenbrink predicts that the criminal charges the pastor incurred by holding religious services during the pandemic will be dismissed on constitutional grounds in the wake of the ruling against Cuomo.