A state judge in Florida has been sued for violating the U.S. Constitution with an injunction that barred congregants of Coastal Family Church from holding church, and threatening them with contempt citations if they did.
Liberty Counsel foundation Mat Staver, whose organization was in the fight on behalf of the church, warned, “The U.S. Constitution leaves no room for court orders that operate as prior restraints on religious worship. When a judge issues an order that suppresses First Amendment freedoms, federal courts have both the authority and the obligation to intervene.
“Every additional day that this injunction remains in force deepens the constitutional harm on Coastal Family Church and its congregation. The U.S. Constitution and Florida laws are clear that Coastal Family Church has the right to hold church services on church property and that restrictive covenants cannot ban religious assembly. This injunction must be overturned,” he said.
The complaint names Sandra Upchurch, who holds the position of judge for the Seventh Judicial Circuit for Flagler County.
She, as defendant, is accused in the complaint:
“For Plaintiffs, it is Resurrection Sunday and the Order that is the subject to this litigation has transformed their place of worship into the equivalent of a constitutional tomb in which they may gather for ‘administrative’ purposes so long as it is not a ‘public assembly,’ which is not defined, has no definition, could include meetings for ‘administrative’ purposes, or is be applied to restrict any ‘public assembly’ (no matter the size) if that ‘public assembly’ includes religious worship. Thus, a small Bible study, or prayer meeting with an insignificant number of people, or the signing or Christian songs by two, five, or ten people (who knows) may be deemed impermissible, subjecting Plaintiffs to the wrath of the state court order. A meeting for ‘administrative’ purposes even if not a ‘public assembly’ that ends in a short time of religious worship could cross the line from a permissible ‘public assembly’ to an impermissible ‘public assembly.’”
The lawsuit charges that the judge’s injunction “strikes at the very heart of the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious liberty.”
The judge’s threat includes “crippling punishment of contempt and sanction for merely attempting to exercise their constitutionally protected First Amendment rights and sincerely held religious beliefs.”
The legal team explained for eight weeks already, the church, its members, elders and others have been deliberately deprived of their constitutional rights to speech, peaceable assembly, equal protection and free exercise.
Federal intervention in the state court’s ideology is the only answer, the case charges.
Already, an “arm of the state in badges” has been monitoring the congregation “to ensure they did not engage in religious worship, read Scripture, receive communion, or fellowship,” Liberty Counsel charged.
The legal team in the fight seeks a temporary restraining order immediately halting the state court injunction as well as subsequent injunctions allowing worship services.
The church, located in the Flagler Square strip mall, has been sued by its property association, Flagler Square – JAX, Inc., over alleged parking congestion and a condominium covenant that the association interprets as prohibiting “public assembly,” the legal team said.
“Despite no evidence of parking problems, the Seventh Judicial Circuit Court issued the injunction. Since then, the property management company has used police to ensure the church abided by the injunction and did not hold religious services.”
Ironically, the property association targets the church while “letting other non-religious assemblies meet without restriction on the other properties in the strip mall,” the team said.
