Newsom’s Power Faces Supreme Court Showdown

We’ve been saying it for years – the faith of Christians in this country is under attack by our own leaders. Now California Governor Gavin Newsom is showing the world what happens when government power goes unchecked. And that’s also why your ACLJ is taking Newsom and the state of California all the way to the Supreme Court.

As we posted yesterday on ACLJ.org:

The ACLJ is proud to announce that we are joining forces with Robert Tyler and Advocates for Faith & Freedom to represent Calvary Chapel San Jose and Pastor Mike McClure in their critical fight for religious freedom.

Calvary Chapel refused to follow the orders of Leftist government officials in California by continuing to hold worship services and not enforcing California Governor Gavin Newsom’s mask mandates during the pandemic lockdowns.

Their courage in exercising their First Amendment rights resulted in over $1.2 million in government fines.

Here we are, nearly six years after the height of the COVID lockdowns, and still, Newsom and the state are trying to squeeze $1.2 million in fines from Calvary Chapel in San Jose. Why? Because the church rightly stood for the Gospel and continued to gather for worship. Let that sink in.

Deuteronomy 31:12–13 literally commands us to gather:

Assemble the people—men, women and children, and the foreigners residing in your towns—so they can listen and learn to fear the Lord your God and follow carefully all the words of this law.

At no point do the Scriptures say, “Gather, unless the governor tells you not to.” And all due respect to the governor, but God’s laws trump any state’s laws. Period.

But here we are, watching Newsom reach his hand into the offering plate, like a modern-day Sheriff of Nottingham, snatching up donations from hardworking Californians that they willingly sacrificed for ministry, outreach, and missions – and handing it over to the state. It’s one thing to say “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s,” but this feels like an old-fashioned, back-alley shakedown out of spite.

Back in 2020, churches like Calvary Chapel were told they couldn’t meet with more than 50 people – whether they had a sanctuary that held 100 or 10,000. Meanwhile, retail stores stayed open. Casinos stayed open. And the governor himself famously – and without question hypocritically – dined at the high-end French Laundry restaurant in posh Napa Valley, maskless, surrounded by lobbyists. A restaurant, it’s worth noting, where the average meal reportedly runs nearly $400 per person. What’s that old adage about Nero playing the fiddle while Rome burned?

And yet, worship services were deemed dangerous. That’s not public health – that’s unconstitutional. California is waging war against an innocent church, levying COVID fines seemingly with the intent of bankrupting the congregation. It’s actually sick.

The ACLJ is representing Calvary Chapel and filing a major petition for certiorari at the U.S. Supreme Court defending the church. My dad, ACLJ Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow, joined us on the broadcast to discuss the case and explain where it goes from here:

We are taking it to the Supreme Court of the United States. We’re filing the petition for certiorari because what happened to the Calvary Chapel was outrageous. And let me underscore something, . . . there were all these exemptions given by Gavin Newsom in the state of California for retail stores. He had his famous dinner. All casinos were allowed to open, but churches had restrictions that made absolutely no sense.

They were ultimately held to be unconstitutional. The one restriction that made no sense is that they had for every church, you couldn’t have a gathering of over 50 people, and that was true whether the sanctuary was 500 square feet or 5,000 square feet or 10,000 square feet. So, none of it made sense.

The courts in California and even some of the California courts, and ultimately the Supreme Court, declared that most of those restrictions are unconstitutional. And the ones they did find unconstitutional were the ones that were applied to our client, Calvary Chapel.

Now you’ve got $1.2 million in fines being imposed on a church. After the order was declared unconstitutional. I want everybody to think about this for a moment. The political machine in California, the Attorney General, and Governor Gavin Newsom believe that they can enforce fines on a church. That’s in a case where those violations were held to be not applicable because they were unconstitutionally vague.

Yet, California doesn’t stop. So, we are asking the Supreme Court to take the case.

If you’re a believer and church-going, I want you to think about your church or the church you grew up in. Now ask yourself: What would it do to that church if it were ordered to pay over $1 million in bogus fines? There are very few churches in the world, let alone America, that could survive a hit like that. And if Newsom and California get away with what certainly smacks of modern-day racketeering, imagine what it could do next. I’d rather not. That’s why the ACLJ is taking him to court.

As we stated previously:

The weaponization of government against religious liberty that Calvary Chapel San Jose is facing should concern every American who values religious liberty – and that’s why we’re taking this case all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Today’s Sekulow broadcast included more discussion regarding our case against Gavin Newsom. We also discussed today’s elections, specifically the critical gubernatorial races in both New York and Virginia.

Watch the full broadcast below: