He cites a 20-year-old Supreme Count decision as precedent. "The Supreme Court has been pretty clear for about 20 years in a case called Employment Division Versus Smith.
"When the government has a law that applies to everybody, then that isn't grounds for discrimination against religion just because it inhibits religious practice."
He says it will be interesting to see how this case would play out in front of the United States Supreme Court with the addition of two new conservative justices. He still doesn't see this case winning.
"There's no way the government is going to say you can't make so we're all safe, that you're going to allow people because of their religious practices to congregate and transmit diseases that could be deadly. There's a famous saying that the constitution is not a suicide pact."He says he wouldn't be surprised if pastors nationwide are teeing up these cases for a Supreme Court review. Attorney Jared Woodfill represents Hotze and the three pastors. He claims Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo is out of line.
"She picks and chooses what we call winners and losers. Some of the winners that she identifies are folks who clean swimming pools, liquor stores, bicycle repair shops, lawn services. The losers she chooses are the churches and a whole group of other small businesses."
Woodfill says they are now filing in Harris, Montgomery, Fort Bend, and Galveston County trial courts, asking judges to declare countywide orders as unconstitutional.
Woodfill says big churches are holding their services online. The order impacts the small churches.
"When you have a small church, a church of 75 to 200 people, not being able to congregate can have a huge impact."
He says every pastor he's aware of has used social distancing guidelines of ten feet between parishioners. He says there's much less social distancing at grocery stores.
