PHOENIX (Legal Newsline) – Churches are essential, Arizona’s attorney general has determined after being asked to interpret the order restricting human interaction during the coronavirus pandemic.
Rep. Kelly Townsend submitted a request for a legal opinion from Attorney General Mark Brnovich, asking him what exactly the right to “peaceably assemble” meant in Gov. Doug Ducey’s March 11 executive order.
Speech and religion were two specified protected activities.
“The Executive Order does not impose an absolute six-foot social distancing requirement on essential activities that are constitutionally protected,”Brnovich’s April 30 opinion says.
“Instead, it provides flexibility to individuals engaged in constitutionally protected activities by encouraging such activities to be ‘conducted in a manner that provides appropriate physical distancing to the extent feasible.’”
And one such protected activity is worship, though Brnovich said he will not require or recommend places to open – “that decision is beyond the scope of a legal opinion,” he wrote.
From Legal Newsline: Reach editor John O’Brien at john.obrien@therecordinc.com.