DELAWARE - A Delaware Superior Court Judge has granted Governor Carney’s request to dismiss a lawsuit brought against him by two pastors who claimed the Governor’s lockdown orders during the pandemic violated their religious freedom.
In a statement released by the Neuberger Firm, who represent the religious leaders, the two pastors argued in Hines v. Carney that Carney’s Emergency Orders in the first 14 weeks of lockdown in 2020 denied them their Delaware and United States constitutional rights on 29 separate occasions.
Carney filed for the suit to be dismissed, a request that was granted today by Superior Court Judge Meghan Adams.
“The Court refused to rule on the question of whether the Delaware Bill of Rights requires that churches remain open when Walmart, Acme and liquor stores are open and Christians are locked down and out of their churches, despite the absolute protection given them in the Delaware Constitution of 1776,” said attorney Thomas Neuberger for the pastors.
Pastor Allen Hines of the Townsend Free Will Baptist Church and Reverend David Landow of Emmanuel Orthodox Presbyterian Church filed separate suits against Carney in the Court of Chancery in December of 2021, according to the full opinion published by the Superior Court today. The two suits were consolidated later that month.
In November of 2022, the Court of Chancery dismissed the complaint, and the pastors appealed to the Superior Court in January of this year.
In her published opinion, Judge Adams gives the following as one of several factors behind her decision: “Considering the imperfect knowledge that the Governor had when making these policy decisions, the nature of transmission, and the need to reduce the alarming rate of infection, it was not practically possible for the Governor to put in place policies that had no negative impact on individuals’ freedom of religion, speech, and assembly.”
“As Plaintiffs have not pled that the Governor was not acting in good faith, or that he acted with gross or wanton negligence, the Court finds that the Governor was acting in good faith in furtherance of the public interest, and without gross or wanton negligence,” the opinion goes on to say.
The pastors will appeal today’s decision to the Delaware Supreme Court, according to Neuberger.
