SANTA CLARA COUNTY, Calif. — In a victory for a San Jose church who openly flouted COVID rules at the height of the pandemic, the California Supreme Court on Wednesday denied a petition by Santa Clara County asking that Calvary Chapel pay more than a quarter million dollars in court fees.
“We feel really relieved,” said Mariah Gondeiro, the attorney representing Calvary Chapel.
As a result, the church won’t have to fork over $217,500, which was previously decided by a 6th District Court of Appeal ruling issued over the summer. In that decision, the court reversed the fees stemming from court orders issued in December 2020 and February 2021 when Calvary Chapel openly defied the county’s public health orders. In their August ruling, the appellate court cited multiple U.S. Supreme Court decisions last year that favored religious freedoms over public health rules.
The state court’s decision reflects the wider reverberations that the conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court has had on the country’s legal systems.
“I think we have a very religious-friendly Supreme Court,” said Gondeiro, a who works for the Southern California-based Advocates For Faith & Freedom. “And we’re starting to see that trickle down across the country. When it comes to religious freedoms, they know where the Supreme Court stands.”
However, in addition to denying the county’s petition Wednesday, the state’s high court also decertified the August appellate ruling. That move effectively wipes away the 6th District’s precedent and doesn’t allow future legal challengers to use it. Santa Clara County’s counsel James Williams considers Wednesday decision as both a partial loss and partial victory.
“I’m certainly disappointed they didn’t review the petition,” he admitted. “But in ordering the decision to be de-published, it can no longer be cited. It will no longer affect rule of law. I think the California Supreme Court sent that message.”
During the first year of the pandemic, the Santa Clara County Superior Court granted the county a preliminary injunction against Calvary Chapel to stop holding indoor services where congregants were not wearing masks, not following social distancing orders and singing — all in violation of public health requirements at the time. Calvary Chapel — a nondenominational Christian church with 3,000 congregants — ignored the injunction and was found in contempt of court and fined hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In its unanimous Aug. 15 ruling, the appeals court sided with the church.
“From these decisions, we understand the U.S. Supreme Court to hold that where a pandemic-related public health order prohibiting indoor gatherings has the effect of prohibiting indoor worship services, the order is not neutral and of general applicability if the public health order permits any other type of indoor secular activity, notwithstanding that secular indoor gatherings are also banned,” Presiding Justice Mary Greenwood wrote in a 36-page opinion.
The high court’s ruling Wednesday bars any future legal avenues for the county to force the church to pay the contempt-of-court fees. The county had tried pointing out to the state Supreme Court that the 6th District had let Calvary Chapel completely off the hook by interpreting a single one of its violations surrounding capacity limits as unconstitutional. The church violated multiple public health orders such as mask-wearing, the county contended, and therefore should still have been held responsible for being in contempt of court.
Despite the state Supreme Court ruling, the church and county are still locked in a legal battle that could take years to resolve, with millions on the line.
The fight began in the summer of 2020 when Calvary Chapel sued in federal court, claiming that local public health orders were violating its right to hold church services. That led the county to fight back by suing the church in state court, saying they were responsible for $2.87 million in fines for violating public health orders.
Both sides have experienced victories and setbacks over the years, culminating in a deposition in August by Santa Clara County Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody, a unique moment when the decision making of one of the country’s top public health officials was scrutinized. Hearings for both the state and federal cases will occur in January.
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