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faith and Freedom. My Met S, founder and Chairman of Liberty. Counsel. Joining me is Holly made. You know, Matt, it seems like a lifetime ago we were dealing with the situation. In fact it was Easter of 20 20. When the police officer showed up at Mary Baptist Church in Kentucky and told these parish that they could not worship in the church or even in the parking lot, and they were threatening them with a violation, I believe
if they did so. Yes. The governor actually had issued an executive order. Governor Bash. And he is a democrat that was somebody who had previously given accommodation to his, attorney general on the same sex marriage issue. Mh. But he would not give any a accommodation here with regards to the issue of religious freedom. In fact, he did exactly the opposite. He issued this order, and he said no in person and no parking lots services, no parking lot
services. But, yeah, People were showing up at these big box stores, home depot what have you going in there as as usual. That was okay, but church was not. He actually warned people that he would send out the state troopers. If anybody went to church on Easter. And so this was Easter Sunday, and doc Jack Roberts is the pastor had been the longtime pastor of Mary Baptist Church.
And so they set up sir speakers out in the parking lot outside the church, while he was inside speaking, and people then would drive into the parking lot, and they would be able to hear the message over the loud speakers. But I don't know. The police officers were putting notices on their car, requiring them what to show up at the health department every day to do testing and whatnot? Yeah. The actual straight. Police officers actually came to the parking lot,
while these people were in their car. With their windows With their windows rolled up, And How would put these citations on their windshield. Even remember of the media even showed up, and they gave me citation. Yes. I know. That was crazy. The... Media... We have a photograph of the media van with a citation on its front window. And so what the citation said is that They were in violation of the governor's executive order and that they had to quarantine for 14 days, and anybody in their vehicle
had to quarantine for 14 days. But they had to go for testing every day. They had to go every day, 14 and Been travel out of town out of state... You travel out of their prisoners. Out of their county. Yeah. They couldn't use public transportation. Mh. So they couldn't use anything that would be public transportation, which means, they couldn't even use A911 call to have an ambulance pick them up and go to the hospital. Unless they first got permission, from the department of health of the state
of Kentucky. But don't forget. They could go across the street to Lowe's or Home Depot and get their pot plants. The same people problem would have driven just very close to that church to a home depot. They could have jammed the parking lot on that Easter Sunday morning. That could have turned on their radios parked side by side and listened to the pastor preaching on the radio. Right. And ours wasn't the only church this has happened to. Several of them they were showing up doing
the same thing. Yeah. So we ended up filing a an emergency injunction we lost at the lower court. And the Democrat appointed judge ruled against us. We appealed that as an emergency appeal to the 6 circuit court of appeals. We got a 3 to 0 decision that granted us the right to have the parking lot services. And then the court wanted some additional information on the in person service inside the church. We came back a week later, got a 3 to 0 decision on the in person inside the church worship.
And then the court of appeals also ruled that the lower court judge should issue a preliminary injunction to us as well. And so was forced to issue the preliminary injunction on our behalf in favor of the church And consequently, they were able to worship without these Draco hone restrictions. And, you know when the word got around, people came from out of town out of state to come worship at this church in support of what they were doing and the pastor, doctor Jack Roberts. Yeah.
So they did. The amazing thing is that we had a couple of people that were fired that were attending that church. From their employees. From their employers. Wow. Because they went back to work on Monday, and people in their office realized, oh, you're a member of Mary V baptist Church. You went to this in person. You went into this worship service. Well, it was 10. It was in they were in the cars, and their windows were rolled up. And they fired them. I think 2 people got
fired. I know 1 person. I believe 2 people got fired at different employers. They fired them because of the Stigma that had been placed on them by the governor because what happened is, owe, these people, they're violating the governor's executive order. And now they have met for worship. Well, they were in cars, and they might be careers of this Covid virus because they met in cars. And now they've got a citation and that citation is that they need to quarantine
Well, what are they doing at work? Well, they have no symptoms. They were not out of their cars. That was a bogus order, but they actually lost their jobs. Wow. So this was the nonsense that was going on 4 years ago, Holly. It's hard to believe that was a surreal time. So At had any rate. We end up, then getting these injunction, the executive orders are finally rep peeled because you got court orders against those executive orders.
This particular case that we brought up to the court of appeals was the first case to reach the court of appeals in the country and Liberty Council was part of that very first court of appeals win against any locked down order in the entire nation. Okay. But in this case, the sixth circuit said that the church in the pastor were the... Are the prevailing party us and should be entitled to attorney's fees and cost. But yet the the lower court judge
denied that. Well, what happened is, there were some people from another location that were not members of the church. Mh. And they came to the church on a subsequent time or they said they wanted to come and visit the church. And they had a separate lawsuit. So they had a separate lawsuit. And they went to a separate judge, and they got a an injunction like we did as well, after we did, we got the first injunction.
So they got an injunction later, but their judge in a different part of the place of Kentucky said you're entitled to prevailing party status and you are entitled to attorney's fees. The state of Kentucky appealed that to the sixth circuit. They argue that, no. You're not entitled to attorney's fees. The 6 circuit could have appeal said, oh, yes, you are because you got this injunction. We then had our case, go back down to the lower court because our case was up on
appeal. The judge had denied our right to pursue attorney's fees say that we weren't prevailing parties that the injunction... Yeah. We had an injunction for sure, but the governor just rep peeled the mandate. So the case is moved. The 6 circuit said no. Send it back down to the judge, reconsider all this in light of what we. Right Look at this other case And all inside. Same price the same church. Right. The same exact issues. Affirming that they are prevailing party
and that they are entitled trans fees. So our judge, it should have been a rubber stamp. Right. A new brainer. Right. Yeah. As we say. And so, unfortunately, what happened in our case is the judge issues another ruling. The judge issues another ruling and says, no. You're not entitled to a prevailing party status. Intention did not change the status. Well, no. It did. It did. And the court of appeals has already indicated that it did. So now, you know? Here we go again. Here we go. Racking up
more fees I would think we're... Yeah. Racking up more attorney's fees because we're putting more time in it. So we're back up now to the same 6 circuit court of appeals to appeal again, And how many times have we've been to the court of appeals on this case? This is gonna to be the second time on the attorney's fees issue prevailing part status. We went to the court of appeals to at least to maybe 3 times before. This might have been our fifth time at the court
of deals. Getting the court of appeals to overturn the lower court judge. You think they just get the judge on the phone in listen. Would you do the right thing here? Come on. Was that ridiculous. Yeah. It should have been a no brainer. And... But here we are. We're back up on appeal. Pray for the case because justice needs to be served. Right absolutely. Governor Bash shares issued an unconstitutional order. It resulted in harm. Some
people lost their jobs over there. And we need an injunction so this doesn't happen again. And they need to pay for their constitutional actions so that this sends a message loud and clear. For more information, Got to Council's website l c dot org. You've been listening to faith in Freedom brought to you by Liberty Counsel. We hope that we have motivated you to stand up for your faith, family and freedom.
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