Lawsuit over Gov. Carney's COVID restrictions on places of worship dismissed

A Superior Court Judge dismisses a lawsuit filed by two pastors against Gov. John Carney’s COVID emergency orders.

It was brought to the Superior Court after being dismissed by the Court of Chancery in November for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

It was brought to the Superior Court after being dismissed by the Court of Chancery in November for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

In the case, the plaintiffs, two church pastors operating in the First State, claimed that the restrictions placed on churches by Gov. John Carney at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic violated their absolute religious freedoms.

Three remedies were requested in this case:

A declaratory judgment on the constitutionality of the restrictions placed on churches by the Governor in the first 14 weeks of the lockdown, a permanent injunction against the Governor and his successors to prevent them from enacting similar restrictions in the future, and nominal and compensatory damages.

In a 49-page decision, Superior Court Judge Meghan Adams sided with Carney and his lawyer’s arguments to dismiss the case.

Adams ruled against the request for monetary damages, saying Carney has qualified immunity for his actions when putting the restrictions in place, and is protected under the State Tort Claims Act, which protects discretionary actions taken in good faith and without gross negligence.

Several reasons were listed to explain why the Governor’s actions were discretionary, along with the recognition that the task of mitigating the harm caused by the pandemic was difficult:

“Some degree of error on the part of the Governor and other state officials was inevitable, but the Emergency Management Act permits a margin of error for the circumstances the Governor faced. 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.

And Adams dismissed claims for declaratory relief because the plaintiffs did not establish a current case or controversy, or proper relief to remedy their alleged injuries.

The plaintiff’s attorney Thomas Neuberger says they plan to appeal the case to the Delaware Supreme Court.

“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,” Neuberger said in a release. “We will appeal to the Delaware Supreme Court and ask it to decide in Constitutional Law class 101 whether powers given to the Governor to discriminate against churches by the General Assembly can ignore freedoms found in our Bill of Rights.”