KALAMAZOO, Mich. (Legal Newsline) – A Michigan church that fought the state’s face mask rules during the COVID-19 pandemic has no business bringing religion into its lawsuit.
That’s according to Ottawa County Deputy Health Administrator Marcia Mansaray, who on June 25 filed a motion for judgment in the lawsuit of Libertas Classical Association, which operates Libertas Christian School.
School officials chose to ignore health department social distancing orders and sued Mansaray and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer instead. They failed to gain the injunctive relief they sought and eventually required students and staff to wear face masks.
The lawsuit persists despite the mask mandate being lifted in the state.
“Libertas failed to identify a religious basis for its objection to masking and social distancing, both in its pleadings and in the testimony of its board president and its headmaster,” lawyers for Mansaray wrote.
“Instead, Libertas has emphasized the suffusion of religious practice into every aspect of its operation and instruction, as if to argue that any decision a religious institution makes is a per se exercise of religion within the meaning of the First Amendments.
“The law, however, does not permit Libertas to decide for itself which governmental directives it will follow just because Libertas is organized around religion. Libertas’ constitutional claims against Mansaray therefore fail.”
District Judge Paul Maloney and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit refused to grant Libertas’ motion for injunctive relief. Libertas has since asked Maloney for permission to amend its complaint.
"Even assuming that Libertas’ objection to requiring masking and social distancing is motivated by a sincere religious belief—a point the Ottawa Defendants do not concede—the enforcement and mitigation actions Ottawa has taken with respect to comparable secular and religious institutions demonstrates that its response to COVID-19 is religiously neutral and generally applicable," Mansaray's motion says.