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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — A federal appeals court in Cincinnati has granted a Bullitt County church and its pastor an emergency injunction that will allow the congregation to hold drive-in services. 

The ruling Saturday by the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit does not apply to in-person services, and a statement from Gov. Andy Beshear's office says the court's decision supports what the governor has said all along.

The ruling prohibits Beshear and "all other Commonwealth officials" from "enforcing orders prohibiting drive-in services at the Maryville Baptist Church if the church, its ministers, and its congregants adhere to the public health requirements mandated for 'life-sustaining' entities."

The court declined to rule on the governor's ban on in-person services after having only 24 hours with the case. 

"We realize that this falls short of everything the Church has asked for and much of what it wants," the ruling says. 

The church's lawsuit stems from its Easter Sunday service on April 12 in Hillview, Kentucky. The church claims troopers with Kentucky State Police "issued notices to the congregants that their attendance at the drive-in service amounted to a criminal act," according to the appeals court's ruling. Photos from the church on Easter Sunday show KSP Troopers placing notices on churchgoers' vehicles after Beshear required anyone who participated in mass gatherings of any type during the holiday weekend to self-quarantine for two weeks.

KSP places notice on churchgoers' cars at Maryville Baptist Church

Troopers with Kentucky State Police arrived at Maryville Baptist Church on Easter Sunday morning to record license plate information of churchgoers who attended a mass gathering during the coronarivus pandemic. 

A video posted to Maryville Baptist Church's Facebook page shows Pastor Jack Roberts leading an in-person worship service, which violated Beshear's March 19 executive order prohibiting "any event or convening that brings together groups of individuals, including, but not limited to, community, civic, public, leisure, faith-based, or sporting events; parades; concerts; festivals; conventions; fundraisers; and similar activities."

U.S. District Judge David Hale of Kentucky denied the church's request for a temporary restraining order against Beshear's executive order, saying it would go against public interest and "substantially harm third parties by facilitating the spread of COVID-19." 

The church and its attorneys appealed to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals because they believed a Louisville district judge wasn't moving fast enough. In their ruling, U.S. Appeals Judges Jeffrey Sutton, David McKeague and John Nalbandian agreed that "time is of the essence."

"The case will become moot just over three Sundays from now, May 20, when the governor has agreed to permit places of worship to reopen," the ruling says. 

In granting the church's injunction, the judges argue that Beshear's executive order "likely" prohibits "free exercise of 'religion' in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments, especially with respect to drive-in services."

"We don’t doubt the Governor’s sincerity in trying to do his level best to lessen the spread of the virus or his authority to protect the Commonwealth’s citizens," the ruling says. "And we agree that no one, whether a person of faith or not, has a right 'to expose the community ... to communicable disease.' But restrictions inexplicably applied to one group and exempted from another do little to further these goals and do much to burden religious freedom.

"Assuming all of the same precautions are taken, why is it safe to wait in a car for a liquor store to open but dangerous to wait in a car to hear morning prayers? Why can someone safely walk down a grocery store aisle but not a pew? And why can someone safely interact with a brave deliverywoman but not with a stoic minister?

"The Commonwealth has no good answers. While the law may take periodic naps during a pandemic, we will not let it sleep through one."

Responding to the ruling Saturday, Beshear's office said the church's claims that the governor banned drive-in services are false. 

"The governor has allowed and even encouraged hundreds of drive-in services across Kentucky," the governor's office said in a statement. "He explicitly encouraged them for Easter at his daily news conferences and on calls with local leaders and clergy. What the Sixth Circuit decided is that drive-in services are okay, but the governor's order prohibiting in-person services remains in effect. That has been the governor’s exact policy since the beginning."

In providing further response to the court's ruling during his Sunday briefing on the COVID-19 outbreak, Beshear said the church fed the court "untrue facts."

"Since Day 1, we have encouraged drive-in services and we've encouraged virtual services. In fact, when there was a lawsuit with (Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer) we submitted brief that said my order allows drive-in services. I stood up here before Easter and said, 'Please, please, please take advantage of either the virtual or the drive-in option. ... I think it's a good decision in that it says exactly what we are: no in-person, but you can do drive-in services. 

"Now, the church that filed the lawsuit somehow convinced the court that we hadn't allowed them to do a drive-up service. That is not true. No one who came to a drive-up service and didn't get out of their car was cited or got a letter or should have gotten a letter. So my question is: They went to court; they say it's a victory; are they abiding by it? Now that the Sixth Circuit has said, 'OK, no in-person (worship) but drive-in (services),' and they say, 'Hey, we won,' are they going to abide by it? I just hope that they do."

Videos on the church's Facebook page show the congregation hasn't. Members gathered inside the church for was an in-person service Sunday morning and Sunday evening. 

The church and state will continue to argue the matter in a Louisville federal court. 

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