The Justice Department criticized Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak for treating churches “unequally” in his guidelines for reopening states.
The letter, dated Monday and written by Nevada U.S. Attorney Nicholas Trutanich and U.S. Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband, both of whom monitor civil rights disputes, echoes a letter Dreiband addressed last week to California Gov. Gavin Newsom on the same issue. In both letters, the Justice Department warns that by treating businesses and churches unequally, governments are violating the free exercise clause of the First Amendment.
“We understand these directives were issued in the midst of an uncertain situation, which may have required quick decisions based on changing information,” the letter said. “We are concerned, however, that the flat prohibition against 10 or more persons gathering for in-person worship services — regardless of whether they maintain social distancing guidelines — impermissibly treats religious and nonreligious organizations unequally.”
Nevada’s current reopening strategy allows for restaurants and other businesses to reopen at 50% capacity. Hair salons are allowed to reopen with no limitations on customers. Churches, however, are still required to keep their congregations capped at 10 people or fewer, in keeping with Sisolak’s stay-at-home order issued in March.
The Justice Department urged Sisolak, who is expected to provide an update to his reopening strategy Tuesday night, to offer more leniency to churches and end the “unequal treatment of places of worship.”
This is the fourth time the Justice Department has intervened in a religious liberty case during the coronavirus pandemic. In the first instance, Attorney General William Barr filed a statement of interest in the case of a Mississippi church defying a local order that banned drive-in services. In the second, Justice Department officials threw their support behind a Virginia church when it sued Gov. Ralph Northam for the right to hold in-person services. In the third, Dreiband sent a letter to Newsom asking him to remove his all-out ban on churches.
This latest letter comes several days after President Trump announced during a Friday press conference that he would “override” any governors who refused to comply with his new guidelines for reopening churches.
