Florida Follows Others in Allowing Church Amid Stay-Home Order
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Issuing Stay-at-Home Order
(Bloomberg) --
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a stay-at-home order after weeks of rejecting calls for such a measure. But like other mandates ranging from New York to New Mexico, it ensures that Floridians can still attend religious services.
The carve-out for houses of worship comes as authorities across the U.S. have cited religious leaders for violating social-distancing guidelines meant to blunt the spread of the new coronavirus. One pastor was charged in Hillsborough County, Florida, which encompasses Tampa, for defying a county stay-at-home order.
“This virus doesn’t discriminate -- it endangers people whether they gather for religious or secular purposes, and it puts entire communities at risk,” Rachel Laser, president and chief executive officer of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said in a statement Tuesday.
DeSantis made the exception as he became the latest state leader to put statewide restrictions on movement, finally giving in after shrugging off criticism for weeks. His order comes after similar steps Tuesday in Texas, another late mover that made an exception for religious worship. Michigan imposed a stay-at-home order with a religious carve-out effective March 24.
Religious gatherings were also exempted from Ohio’s stay-at-home order, issued Sunday by Republican Governor Mike DeWine. Solid Rock, an Ohio megachurch whose Cincinnati location hosted an event for evangelical supporters of President Donald Trump last month, held an in-person service Sunday and said on its website that it would exert a constitutional right to continue meeting.
Other states that allow some exemption for religious services include Delaware, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, according to the Center for American Progress.
In Florida, Covid-19 cases have been surging, and researchers are concerned the state could suffer one of America’s highest death counts, in part because of its large 65-and-older community.
DeSantis altered his stance after Trump extended social-distancing guidelines through the end of the month and acknowledged grim predictions for the weeks ahead. The White House now projects the virus could kill between 100,000 and 240,000 Americans.
Vice President Mike Pence told ABC’s “Nightline” on Wednesday that people shouldn’t attend church services of more than 10 worshippers.
The Florida order goes into effect at 12:01 a.m. Friday and will be similar to guidelines already issued in Miami-Dade County, the state’s top population center.
“This thing is really nasty,” DeSantis said Wednesday. “It’s something that’s caused a lot of harm to a lot of people, and I think that we need to have all levers going.”
For weeks, DeSantis took only incremental steps, allowing crowds in some parts of the state to flock to beaches and flout social-distancing guidelines. He said he opposed using a “blunt instrument” such as a stay-at-home order, arguing that conditions varied widely across the large state of 21.5 million.
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