And Yet Another California COVID Update

A Sutter County, CA superior court judge has ruled againt Gov Newsom's ability to issue arbitrary executive orders for COVID control:

Sutter County Superior Court Judge Sarah Heckman tentatively ruled that one of the dozens of executive orders Newsom has issued overstepped his authority and impinged on the state Legislature.

She more broadly barred him “from exercising any power under the California Emergency Services Act which amends, alters, or changes existing statutory law or makes new statutory law or legislative policy.”

. . . Heckman wrote in a nine-page decision that the California Emergency Services Act “does not permit the Governor to amend statutes or make new statutes. The Governor does not have the power or authority to assume the Legislature’s role of creating legislative policy and enactments.”

However, this is almost certainly going to be just the first chapter in another dog-bites-man story, in which a lower court judge issues an entirely justifiable ruling that executive orders that have the force of law must be enacted as laws by a legislature, but the injunctions are immediately stayed on appeal, and the proceedings are slow-walked thereafter. This has happened in numerous jurisdictions from Oregon to New York, most prominenly with federal Judge Stickman's Pennsylvania ruling.

I would say stay tuned, but I think there's going to be another long wait. Sutter County is an agricultural and partly suburban area northeast of Sacramento.

In La Habra Heights, a rural Los Angeles suburb southeast of the city, an Evangelical congregation, World Aflame, has sued city officials for harassment of activities protected under the US First Amendment. The unique twist here is that the church has been abiding by all applicable masking, outdoor worship, and social distancing regulations from all applicable authorities, but the city alleges that its outdoor services now violate a noise ordinance.

The harassment, according to Pastor Joe Garcia of World Aflame Ministries, is the work of La Habra Heights City Manager Fabiola Huerta and Juan Garcia, a private citizen who lives near the congregation’s rented meeting place.

The suit cited inspections by the Los Angeles County Health Department and Sheriff’s Office that found the congregation in compliance with all existing orders.

“Defendants have repeatedly falsely accused Plaintiffs of violating health orders. Realizing that Plaintiffs were beyond reproach in complying with federal, state, county, and city laws and public health orders, Defendants decided to focus on local subjective noise ordinances to continue to harass and persecute Plaintiffs,” the Garcias contend in their lawsuit.

. . . "In July 2020, after Plaintiffs moved their worship services outside to comply with COVID-19 health orders, Defendant Juan Garcia started yelling at church ushers and members and taking video and pictures of the church members on a weekly basis.

“Juan Garcia made complaints based on false allegations to the Los Angeles County Health Department and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, which visited the church numerous times during worship services and found no legal violations.

"Juan Garcia also made and continues to make complaints based on false allegations to the City of La Habra Heights (the ‘City’). The City and Fabiola Huerta in her official capacity as city manager, erroneously gave credence to Garcia’s false accusations and unlawfully joined Juan Garcia in conspiring to harass, fine, and cite Plaintiffs, in spite of evidence that Plaintiffs are in full compliance with state and county health orders and with the La Habra Heights Municipal Code (‘LHHMC’).”

Reading between the lines and applying my own experience in outdoor church services, even if the congregation is abiding by all the rules and limiting attendance to 100, socially distanced, masked, and without singing, an audio system is ncessary to hear readings, prayers, and preaching. If the service were indoors, the noise wouldn't be noticeable to neighbors. But with an audio system outdoors, the neighbors hear it. (However, based on the suit, even this level is within the actual city noise ordinance.)

It's hard to avoid thinking that the actual intent of COVID controls will be eventually to prohibit any form of congregational worship -- they're certainly working on ways to do it.