DC Church Wins Favorable Settlement with City over COVID Restrictions

Capitol Hill Baptist Church was founded in 1878 in our nation’s capital, and has met together every Sunday since then, except for three weeks in 1918 during the Spanish flu pandemic. In March 2020, the District of Columbia’s mayor issued an order prohibiting churches from gathering in groups of over 100, including for outdoor worship, even if they wore masks and practiced social distancing.
The 850-member church doesn’t hold online worship services, nor does it have multiple worship gatherings on Sundays. But it does take Scripture’s admonition seriously of “not neglecting to meet together.” (Hebrews 10:25 ESV).
When the city refused to grant the church any waiver from its outdoor restrictions, while simultaneously allowing tens of thousands of citizens to march in the streets during the George Floyd protests in June 2020, the church felt it was being discriminated against.
With the help of attorneys from First Liberty Institute (First Liberty), the church sued the city and its mayor in September 2020. In October, U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden issued an injunction against the city, ruling that the COVID gathering restrictions substantially burdened the church’s exercise of religion, and that the city had neither shown a compelling interest for doing so, nor shown that its prohibition was the least-restrictive means to achieve its interest.
Since then, the church has been meeting every Sunday, those original restrictions have been removed and the parties have been involved in settlement negotiations. First Liberty announced recently that those negotiations have culminated in an agreement whereby the city will pay the church the sum of $220,000 to cover its attorneys fees. The city further agreed that in the future, should another public health emergency arise, it will not impose restrictions on the church that are more restrictive than the restrictions on comparable secular activities.
“All Capitol Hill Baptist Church ever asked is for equal treatment under the law so they could meet together safely as a church,” Hiram Sasser, Executive General Counsel for First Liberty, said in a press release. “The church is relieved and grateful that this ordeal is behind them. Government officials need to know that illegal restrictions on First Amendment rights are intolerable and costly.”
The Capitol Hill Baptist settlement also aligns with several U.S. Supreme Court decisions since November 2020 rebuking state governments in New York and California for imposing COVID-related gathering restrictions on churches that weren’t imposed on other secular activities and locations such as businesses, shopping malls and restaurants.
The First Amendment forbids the government from prohibiting the free exercise of religion. Treating churches more harshly during a pandemic than other activities violates that constitutional guarantee. Thanks to the efforts of First Liberty and its co-counsel, WilmerHale, LLP, Capitol Hill Baptist Church vindicated not only its religious freedom rights, but those of every church meeting in the District of Columbia.
A statement by the church from September 2020 sums it all up very nicely:
“A church is not a building that can be opened and closed. A church is not an event to be watched. A church is a community that gathers regularly and that community should be treated fairly by the District government.”
Picture from Wikipedia – Dhousch.
’Tis the season for holiday reading!
Check out Daily Citizen’s cheery winter reads.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bruce Hausknecht, J.D., is an attorney who serves as Focus on the Family’s judicial analyst. He is responsible for research and analysis of legal and judicial issues related to Christians and the institution of the family, including First Amendment freedom of religion and free speech issues, judicial activism, marriage, homosexuality and pro-life matters. He also tracks legislation and laws affecting these issues. Prior to joining Focus in 2004, Hausknecht practiced law for 17 years in construction litigation and as an associate general counsel for a large ministry in Virginia. He was also an associate pastor at a church in Colorado Springs for seven years, primarily in worship music ministry. Hausknecht has provided legal analysis and commentary for top media outlets including CNN, ABC News, NBC News, CBS Radio, The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, the Associated Press, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe and BBC radio. He’s also a regular contributor to The Daily Citizen. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Illinois and his J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law. Hausknecht has been married since 1981 and has three adult children, as well as three adorable grandkids. In his free time, Hausknecht loves getting creative with his camera and capturing stunning photographs of his adopted state of Colorado.
Related Posts

JD Vance: ‘You Shouldn’t Have to Leave Your Faith at the Door’
February 5, 2025

Appeals Court Favors Louisiana Ten Commandments Law for Now
November 18, 2024

Christian Woman Fired for Refusing COVID Vaccine Wins $12 Million
November 13, 2024