Justice Department backs private schools in virus challenge

KALAMAZOO» The U.S. Justice Department said Friday it’s on the side of Michigan faith-based schools that are challenging Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s ban on in-person classes in high schools.

The department’s Civil Rights Division filed an argument in favor of three Catholic high schools and the Michigan Association of Non-Public Schools. A federal judge in Kalamazoo will hear arguments Monday.

Schools and families have a constitutional right to practice their religion through in-person instruction, the government said, citing a recent U.S. Supreme Court order that barred New York from enforcing certain restrictions on religious services in areas hit hard by the coronavirus.