California Appeals Court Overturns Grace Community Church Decision

According to this site:

Los Angeles County lost the first round in its battle to halt worship services at John MacArthur’s Grace Community Church. The county appealed that loss and won Saturday. In a decision handed down by the State of California Court of Appeal, Second District, Division Two, the lower court order that would allow Grace Community to conduct indoor worship was overturned.

The Appeals court said it would need time to consider the questions raised by the lawsuit before it could render a full order. It said in its opinion, “Definitively resolving these questions, however, will entail the resolution of difficult questions of law. We certainly cannot resolve them before tomorrow morning’s church services.”

So, while the issues are being decided, the Appeals Court said that LA County can go forward with any bans or enforcement that its Health Office decides appropriate.

Los Angeles County issued this press release yesterday:

The California Court of Appeal today set aside a lower court order that would have allowed indoor services to take place at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley.

The Court of Appeal’s decision temporarily upholds the County’s Health Officer Orders prohibiting indoor worship services in order to protect congregants and the community as a whole from transmission of the highly contagious and potentially fatal COVID-19 virus.

A full hearing on the matter is scheduled for September 4. A link to the court’s ruling can be found here: http://file.lacounty.gov/SDSInter/lac/1076857_GraceChurchOrder.pdf

So far, I haven't found any announcement from Grace Community Church or its Thomas More Society attorneys. However, the church had been practicing civil disobedience in holding services up to Friday, and I can't imagine this decision by the appeals court will change anything.

I'll cover this story with updates as they develop.

UPDATE: I checked the 10:30 AM livestream, and the service proceeded as usual, with no masks and enthusiastic singing to organ and orchestra.

This YouTube update gives more background:

Pastor MacArthur's opening remarks at this morning's 10:30 service: