In 2020 as the lockdowns went into full banana republic, church members from Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho were arrested and charged for violating Covid protocols. Three years later, the city has settled the lawsuit. 

A liberal college town in Idaho is paying $300,000 to three Christian churchgoers who sued the city after being arrested for not wearing masks at an outside service during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The city of Moscow announced this week that it would settle with Gabriel Rench, as well as Sean and Rachel Bohnet, who brought a case against city leaders in March 2021 that alleged their rights under the First and Fourth Amendments were violated when they were arrested at an outdoor “psalm sing” conducted by leaders from their church in September 2020.

By September 2020, we were ALL seeing the damage done by these Covid protocols and we were ALL seeing the hypocrisy at work from our so-called experts and political leadership. Churches were forced to shut their doors and only help parishioners remotely. In-person fellowship was banned. Churches tried work-arounds by holding services through Zoom, using speakers and projectors on church lawns, and/or sitting in their parked cars in the parking lots. 

Yet some of those protocols and mandates weren’t enough for the power-mad. There were multiple instances of law enforcement being ordered to take down license plate numbers of church-goers. There were multiple instances of services being shut down because Covid protocols weren’t adhered to in the “right” way. 

A suburban Los Angeles megachurch will get $800,000 from the state of California and Los Angeles County after state and federal courts issued permanent injunctions over COVID-related restrictions on houses of worship.

The county’s board of supervisors voted Tuesday to approve a settlement with Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, and its pastor, the Rev. John MacArthur, 81, a popular Christian radio broadcaster. The county will pay $400,000 for the church’s legal fees, while the state contributes another $400,000, the church’s attorneys said.

It took the Supreme Court in 2021 to force California government to allow the church to exercise its First Amendment rights. In regards to the church lawsuit in Moscow, Idaho the judge’s ruling is pretty blunt. 

Rench and the others were charged with violating the city’s repeatedly extended health ordinance, which carved out exemptions for activities protected under the U.S. Constitution and the Idaho State Constitution, including religious activity.

A magistrate judge later dismissed the city’s case against them, and U.S. District Court Judge Morrison C. England, Jr., wrote in his Feb. 1, 2023 memorandum and order denying the city’s motion to dismiss that the “plaintiffs should never have been arrested in the first place, and the constitutionality of what the City thought [its] code said is irrelevant.”

“Somehow, every single City official involved overlooked the exclusionary language [of constitutionally protected behavior] in the Ordinance,” the judge further wrote.

So, the city of Moscow arrested church goers who were participating in a Constitutionally protected activity  because Covid protocols trumped their First Amendment rights. Keep in mind, this case got national attention at the time. 

Yet now, even as this lawsuit was settled, there are others out there who are trying to gaslight us into believing the Covid lockdowns didn’t really happen like we thought they did. 

No, you don’t because this never happened pic.twitter.com/17AtEAZGdU

— Walker Bragman Supports the Orcas (@WalkerBragman) July 21, 2023

This guy is a journalist who also still believes herd immunity is wrong and any advice from Scott Atlas or Dr. Jay Bhattacharya is dangerous. Plus, all those lockdowns? Were a myth. 

There is no counter factual here where life could have continued on as normal in a global pandemic with thousands of Americans dying every day.

Pandemics suck. Denial makes them worse.

— Walker Bragman Supports the Orcas (@WalkerBragman) July 21, 2023

No, none of this was a myth. Schools were closed to in-person learning well into 2022 for some areas. Churches were closed, playgrounds were padlocked shut, skateboard parks were filled with sand, parents arrested or ticketed for daring to take their child to a park with no one around, people weren’t allowed to purchase garden seeds, and more. Women gave birth alone, people DIED alone, funerals weren’t held or could only have 10 people there. 

Yet people were allowed to riot and burn businesses down in support of a drug-addled convict. 

No, do NOT tell us the lockdowns didn’t really happen. They did and this lawsuit in Moscow, Idaho is just one of many making their way through the system involving violation of American’s First and Fourth Amendment rights.  

This ruling for the church and parishioners was a win for our Constitutional rights. It’s a win we should celebrate, but not take for granted. Why? Because they’ll try it again. 

Feature Photo Credit: Constitution gavel by zimmytws Royalty-free stock photo ID: 1187198125 via Shutterstock, cropped and modified