Judge grants temporary restraining order against church

‘On a scale of 1 to 10 of the most immediate irreparable harm possible, this is a 10’



Pastor Rob McCoy of Godspeak Calvary Chapel in Newbury Park, at left, greets parishioners as they serve themselves communion in April in defiance of public health orders. Today a judge granted the County of Ventura a temporary restraining order to prevent the church from holding indoor services, which it has been doing for weeks. Acorn file photo

A Ventura County judge granted a temporary restraining order today against Godspeak Calvary Chapel in Newbury Park, forbidding the church from holding large worship services indoors until a full hearing can be held Mon., Aug. 31.

Citing a recent Supreme Court decision that dealt with a Chula Vista, Calif., church that challenged the governor’s coronavirus restrictions in April, Judge Matthew Guasco said the balance between personal freedoms and public health weighed heavily in favor of the County of Ventura, which requested the injunction.

“South Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Newsom, this year’s case, dealt with pretty close to the same series of restrictions that the respondent is challenging here with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions on the ability of places of worship to have indoor services,” he said. “And Chief Justice (John) Roberts, he summed it up perfectly in terms of the balance between individual liberty and the government’s police power to protect the exercise of individual liberty if it threatens the public welfare and health.

“The Constitution is not a suicide pact. The exercise of individual liberties has to be consistent with public health, otherwise the one would cancel out the other.”

In requesting an injunction, or a temporary restraining order, the county’s legal team, led by Assistant County Counsel Jaclyn Smith, had to show cause that the situation was an emergency that presented an immediate public health risk.

Guasco said the county easily met that burden of proof.

“On a scale of 1 to 10 of the most immediate irreparable harm possible, this is a 10. It doesn’t get much more immediate or irreparable than the threat that a lot of people are going to spread a contagious and deadly disease,” he said.

To date, no members of the Godspeak congregation have come down with the virus, Pastor Rob McCoy has said.

The church, led by the former Thousand Oaks City Council member and onetime Republican candidate for the Assembly, has been holding indoor worship services for weeks in defiance of a ban in effect in counties on the state’s COVID-19 monitoring list.

Today’s hearing came three days after the Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 in closed session to give county attorneys discretion to seek legal action against people or entities that don’t comply with state or local health orders. County counsel filed for a restraining order the next day.

Before announcing his ruling, Guasco cited Jacobson v. Massachusetts, a 115-year-old case in which the Supreme Court upheld a local health board’s right to require people to be vaccinated to prevent the spread of smallpox.

“We’re not writing on a clean slate; this is not a new question,” Guasco said. “Pandemics and their restrictions on individual liberties under the Constitution have been with us for over 100 years.”

The judge noted a temporary restraining order is just that, temporary, and said the order would be dissolved if Godspeak’s legal team is successful during the more thorough hearing in two weeks.

The Aug. 31 hearing has been scheduled for 10 a.m. in Courtroom 20. Because the courtroom is not Zoom-compatible, the hearing will be held in person with masks and social distancing, the judge said. Only nine people will be allowed in the audience.

This story will be updated.