LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Days after three people who attended Easter service at a Bullitt County church filed suit against Governor Andy Beshear for their quarantine notices, the church and its pastor have also filed a lawsuit.
Maryville Baptist Church and Pastor Jack Roberts filed a lawsuit alleged Beshear violated their religious freedom by targeting churchgoers on Easter Sunday.
The lawsuit says Beshear allowed "so-called 'life sustaining' commercial and non-religious entities to accommodate large gatherings...without scrutiny."
"The Commonwealth found 19 categories of businesses for which large numbers of people may gather without restraint, but expressly prohibited the constitutionally protected assemblies or 'gatherings' of 'faith-based' groups," the suit says.
Maryville Baptist said the church was not undermining the governor's efforts to stop COVID-19 from spreading, and said Beshear's order threatened them with "mandatory, household-wide quarantines, risk loss of their occupations, and suffer criminal penalties for simply going to church."
The church said the people who did attend its in-person service were spread apart. It also alleges Kentucky State Police troopers placed the notices on cars where people stayed inside for the "drive-in parking lot service."
“The only reason these people were given notices is because they were in a church parking lot. Had they parked in the nearby shopping center they would not have been targeted. This is clearly Gov. Andy Beshear’s discriminating against churches,” attorney Mat Staver said.
Staver represents Maryville Baptist and Roberts. He is the founder of Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit organization "dedicated to advancing religious freedom."
The lawsuit cites a federal judge's temporary restraining order against any stoppage of drive-in Easter service, saying Beshear did what Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer "only threatened to do."
In his press conferences before Easter, Beshear said he would allow any drive-in services and said notices would only be given to those at in-person services. Maryville Baptist is the only church in the state that hosted an in-person Easter service, and no other churches received notices.
A University of Louisville law professor and Dr. Albert Mohler Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said the governor was within his rights to prohibit in-person services.
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said churches can have drive-in services, as long as they are properly social distancing, but did not comment on the cancellation of in-person services.
RELATED: Kentucky State Police mark license plate numbers of churchgoers who attended in-person services
RELATED: Telling churches to cancel in-person services is not a violation of the First Amendment, expert says
►Make it easy to keep up-to-date with more stories like this. Download the WHAS11 News app now. For Apple or Android users.
Have a news tip? Email assign@whas11.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter feed.