SAN DIEGO (CN) — Religious schools in California have to abide by the state’s requirements for day care and educational facilities — including health and safety requirements related to Covid-19 masking — a federal judge ruled this week.
“As noted by defendants, and in this court’s prior order on the first motion to dismiss, indignation is not injury and plaintiffs have provided no further grounds for standing to challenge the licensure requirement itself beyond that they do not want a preschool that operates at the pleasure of DSS through the state’s licensing scheme,” wrote U.S. District Judge Cynthia Bashant, a Barack Obama appointee, in her order issued Monday.
The case revolves around a group of Christian churches in San Diego County that wanted to expand their child ministry services by setting up preschools for the children of their congregants. To start a religious school, they had to apply for a license from the state and abide by the California Child Day Care Facilities Act, which is enforced by inspections by the California Department of Social Services.
The churches, including The Grove Church, Journey Community Church, and Foothills Christian Ministries did not want to comply with the state’s requirements, so in 2022 they filed suit in San Diego federal court to strike down the law.
The group claimed the act’s requirements violated the free exercise of their First Amendment rights because it interfered with their religious convictions on mandatory participation in religious services for children.
The act requires that day care facilities confer personal rights to children to voluntarily choose whether to attend religious services.
The churches also claimed that the Department of Social Services violated their First Amendment rights when agents inspected one of their facilities, revoked their license for running a preschool, and removed their preschool director for not following Covid-19 masking requirements in 2021. They claim they have a sincerely held belief that parents have the power to make health decisions for their children, and if parents told their children not to wear masks, then under their religious beliefs, the church could not tell them not to do that.
And the churches complained the day care act violates the establishment clause by exempting certain organizations like the Boy Scouts and the YMCA from having to follow all of the requirements of the law.
Bashant did not agree with any of the plaintiffs' claims.
In her order, Bashant found plaintiffs lack standing to challenge the state’s licensing requirements, especially since they didn’t add any additional facts to bolster their argument since her previous dismissal order.
The claim that the state trampled their free exercise of religion rights when Department of Social Services agents revoked one of the church’s day care licenses for failure to follow masking requirements didn’t hold water with Bashant either, since the church’s actions were in violation of the state Department of Public Health Orders at the time. Plus, the church didn’t claim that the state will one day reinstate health orders on face coverings.
Bashant shot down the claim that requiring the churches to share information about masking, or about requirements that students are free to attend religious services or not, with their congregants violates their free speech rights, because the churches did not show that the state has a history of prosecution or enforcement, and authorities haven’t threatened to enforce it.
The plaintiffs also failed to show any instances where day care centers or preschools were punished by the state for having mandatory religious curriculum, Bashant added.
And the churches struck out on their establishment clause claim over exemptions for groups like the Boy Scouts and the YMCA, with Bashant finding their complaint “contains no more than a threadbare recitation of the elements that by allowing these two organizations, among nearly a dozen other organizations, to operate without licensure under the act constitutes a violation of the constitutional freedom from establishment of religion,” Bashant wrote.
A spokesperson for California's Attorney General declined to comment.
The plaintiffs have until June 10 to amend their complaint.
Attorneys representing the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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