Pastor’s Legal Battles Look Promising After Landmark Supreme Court Decision in NYC

 Legal problems facing Rev. Tony Spell for holding church services at Life Tabernacle in defiance of Gov. John Bel Edwards’ orders seem less and less likely to land the Central pastor in prison.  On the contrary, it looks more and more like he will win the outstanding civil and criminal cases and could well be entitled to damages in a civil case pending in the federal courts.

Rev. Spell’s legal arguments received a major boost from the U.S. Supreme Court in November based on their decision in the case of Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Andrew M. Cuomo. In that case, the court said the governor of New York could not prohibit a church from meeting, at least as long as commercial enterprises were drawing customers. The decision in the Brooklyn case reversed two cases from earlier in 2020 — Calvary Chapel v. Sisolak and South Bay Pentecostal v. Newsome.  Those cases, which had allowed Gov. Newsome to close churches in California, are no longer good law. 

If federal and state courts follow Brooklyn in Rev. Spell’s cases, the local pastor should have no problem in prevailing.

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