Suit filed in Kansas over church gatherings

MISSION, Kan. — Kansas’ Democratic governor filed a lawsuit Thursday after a Republican-dominated legislative panel overturned her executive order banning religious and funeral services of more than 10 attendees during the coronavirus pandemic.

Gov. Laura Kelly said “the last thing” she wants to do is get involved in a legal dispute, but the panel’s ruling Wednesday left her no choice.

“I will not stand by when lives are in jeopardy, and I will not allow the rule of law or the Constitution to be trampled on during an emergency,” Kelly said during a news conference.

Kelly is asking the Kansas Supreme Court to expedite the case and hopes to have a ruling by Sunday, which is Easter, traditionally the most attended church service of the year.

Kelly and GOP leaders generally agree that worshippers should stay home and watch livestreamed religious services during the pandemic, but they disagree on whether the state has the constitutional authority to order it.

In instituting the nowoverturned order, Kelly said three religious gatherings had led to outbreaks of covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

The legal issue at stake concerns how far the Legislature can go in delegating it’s power to another group, in this case, the Legislative Coordinating Council, which is made up of the top four House leaders and top three Senate leaders. Five of the seven members are Republican.

Lawmakers gave the council the right to review Kelly’s executive orders and to overturn many of them within days. Conservative Republicans were upset with an order from Kelly to close K-12 schools for the rest of the spring semester and wanted to block her from using sweeping gubernatorial powers granted to deal with shortterm disasters.

Senate President Susan Wagle, a Wichita Republican and candidate for the U.S. Senate seat Pat Roberts is vacating, said her own church canceled Mass on its own,

“not a mandate by big brother infringing on the individual freedoms given to us by our Bill of Rights.”

It is unclear if any houses of worship planned to hold in-person services anytime soon.

At Central Community Church in Wichita, Kan., up to 7,000 people would typically be expected for Easter Sunday, Senior Pastor Bob Beckler said. This year, members of the evangelical church will be watching services on their phones, pads and computers.

“We’re trying to lead by example,” Beckler said. “I know if I opened the church doors there are people who would come because that’s their habit, and I don’t want to put them in that predicament at all, so we’re just doing it online and it’s working really good.”

The legislative leadership panel acted after Attorney General Derek Schmidt, also a Republican, said that although Kelly’s order was “sound public-health advice,” he was discouraging law enforcement agencies and prosecutors from attempting to enforce the requirements because he believed it violated the state constitution.

Information for this article was contributed by John Hanna and Roxana Hegeman of The Associated Press.