President Trump on Friday said he would move to define houses of worship as essential services to be opened during the coronavirus pandemic.
“I am identifying houses of worship — churches, synagogues and mosques — as essential places that provide essential services,” Trump said at a press briefing. “I call upon governors to allow our churches and places of worship to open right now… If they don’t do it, I will override the governors.”
Trump continued, “Ministers, pastors, rabbis, imams and other faith leaders will make sure that their congregations are safe as they gather and pray….They love their congregations. They love their people. They don’t want anything bad to happen to them or to anybody else.”
Trump lacks the authority to override state decisions regarding closures of businesses and institutions since the Constitution delegates police powers to the states. Trump has clashed with governors in the past over the authority to reopen businesses, and received pushback from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers when he argued that he had absolute authority over the status of business closures.
At the Friday briefing, Trump said that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would be “issuing guidance for communities of faith” to reopen religious facilities. In many jurisdictions, certain restrictions on communal worship have already been lifted. New York revised its lockdown policy on Thursday to permit religious services of 10 people or fewer and drive-in services with larger congregations.
The Justice Department has weighed in on cases involving the closure of churches during the pandemic. Judges in Oregon and Kansas have also nixed some of those states’ restrictions on worship, provided that religious institutions adhere to social distancing requirements and other measures to mitigate the spread of coronavirus.
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Hooray & thank Govs & Mayors who DO want worship to continue, Bravo.
Only Blue states mess up whole outlet
Trump has the authority to have them prosecuted for a felony, as well as sending in the national guard like they did to Littlerock in my youth to enforce civil rights:
18 U.S. Code § 241.Conspiracy against rights
If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same; or
If two or more persons go in disguise on the highway, or on the premises of another, with intent to prevent or hinder his free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege so secured—
They shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, they shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death.
These Democrat Governors and local officials are co-joined twins with Satan, they are connected at the head and Satan is doing their thinking and directing their actions.
Mosques have been open! Only churches and synagogues have been closed. Trump needs to restore the 1952 Immigration Act also. He needs to have AG Barr start charging the governors.
Not correct. All Mosquesare closed for services.
The democrat party is Satan manifest.
He’s cutting off his nose to spite his face. These people are his base; why would he want COVID-45 to spread among them?
You are a cowardly idiot!
Interesting choice of action. He did NOT threaten to override governors who put seeds on the “non-essentials” list and made criminals of people who wanted to start a garden to feed their families. But he’s going to go to bat for churches? I smell pandering during an election year. But who among you “lovers of all as your brothers” gives a rip if your neighbors go hungry, as long as you can sit in your god’s magical temples and say the magic words so you can save your own souls, right?
Your god has already sent you a plague. What do you think he’s going to do if you find some creative new ways to worship while you wait this out? That he’s going to send you a plague or something? Oh…. never mind….
There may not be a Constitutional provision which allows President Trump to order states to reopen, but the Constitution is clear, according to the First Amendment, that no president, governor, or any other elected official can nullify the People’s right to gather before God and worship Him as they see fit. That includes social distancing, shaking hands, hugging, or other personal contacts. This is all unconstitutional.
President Trump does not have the authority over states about religion, look it up.