San Francisco Sun

The U.S. Department  of Justice on Sept. 25 sent a letter to San Francisco Mayor London Breed telling her that her COVID-19 rule of allowing only one congregant in church yet while allowing businesses to permit multiple patrons is totally at odds with the U.S. Constitution and needs to end.

“No government in this free country can attack religion by transforming a house of worship arbitrarily into a place for solitary confinement,” Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband said in the letter, quoted on the Justice Department website. “People of faith go to churches, synagogues, mosques, and other places to worship with their fellow believers, and they can do so lawfully because the First Amendment to the United States Constitution makes illegal any effort by government to prohibit the free exercise of religion.”

Dreiband indicated that a double standard penalizing churches during the pandemic is unacceptable.

“That we are dealing with a very serious public health crisis does not permit government to discriminate against religious worshipers by imposing a one-person-per-house-of-worship rule while permitting larger numbers of people to gather in tattoo parlors, hair salons, massage studios, and other places,” he said. “There is no pandemic exception to the U.S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights.”  

The Justice Department report said while one worshiper is allowed in a San Francisco church, the city allows patrons at gyms, hair salons, tattoo parlors, and massage stations as long as 6-foot social distancing is observed. Gyms have been allowed to operate at 10% of capacity while retail outlets can hold 50%, and child daycare centers are allowed 10 to 12 children per class, the report noted.

The letter resulted after U.S. Attorney General William Barr in April directed Dreiband and other officials to review state and local rulings to ensure that constitutional rights were being observed.

The DOJ letter warned of further possible actions if the restrictions on churches in San Francisco are not lifted.

San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera defended the city’s directive and said the seriousness of the pandemic justified it.

"We must be doing something right," Herrera said in a statement provided to SFGATE. "More than 200,000 Americans are dead from this virus. Maybe the federal government should focus on an actual pandemic response instead of lobbing careless legal threats. San Francisco is opening up at the speed of safety. Religious gatherings indoors and outdoors are already set to expand in a few days. This expansion is beyond what is described in the federal government’s letter. It's consistent with San Francisco’s careful approach and follows closely behind what the state of California allows."