With no recorded dissents, the Supreme Court today denied review in People v. Calvary Chapel San Jose. The Sixth District Court of Appeal’s unpublished opinion affirmed a $1,228,700 administrative fine for a San Jose church’s refusal over a seven-month period to comply with a county’s public health orders requiring face covering during the COVID pandemic.
The Sixth District rejected arguments, as summarized in the opinion, that “(1) the public health orders at issue violate the free exercise clause of the First Amendment (U.S. Const., 1st Amend.); (2) the County violated due process in imposing the administrative fines; and (3) the fines violate the excessive fines clause of the Eighth Amendment (U.S. Const., 8th Amend.)”
In December 2022, the Supreme Court depublished a Sixth District opinion reversing contempt orders imposed for the church’s violation of different pandemic-related public health orders. (See here.) The orders there restricted attendance at indoor gatherings. The appellate court concluded the restrictions were “facially unconstitutional pursuant to the recent guidance of the United States Supreme Court regarding the First Amendment’s protection of the free exercise of religion in the context of public health orders that impact religious practice.”
In the most recent decision, the Sixth District found “as a matter of law that the face covering requirements set forth in the orders are neutral and of general applicability.”
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