Progressive-dominated college town to pay $300K to Christians arrested for outdoor church service during COVID restrictions

American Thinker ^ | 07/21/2023 | Thomas Lifson

[SeekAndFind]

Very slowly, a reckoning is taking place for outrageous tyrannical government restrictions imposed on the populace during the COVID panic. The zeal with which certain public officials tried to restrict basic freedoms in response to a virus with a tiny fatality rate for the non-elderly and non-infirm should stand as a lesson to all that our rights mean little or nothing to them and must be vigorously defended.

This story from Moscow, Idaho, a college town of about 25,000 that is home to the University of Idaho, is both good news and bad news.  Fox News reports:

The city of Moscow announced this week that it would settle with Gabriel Rench, as well as Sean and Rachel Bohnet, who brought a case against city leaders in March 2021 that alleged their rights under the First and Fourth Amendments were violated when they were arrested at an outdoor "psalm sing" conducted by leaders from their church in September 2020. (snip)

The peaceful psalm-singing protest lasted about 20 minutes in front of Moscow City Hall, where city officials had placed small yellow dots six feet apart as social distancing guidance for the participants.

Rench and the others were charged with violating the city's repeatedly extended health ordinance, which carved out exemptions for activities protected under the U.S. Constitution and the Idaho State Constitution, including religious activity.

A magistrate judge later dismissed the city's case against them, and U.S. District Court Judge Morrison C. England, Jr., wrote in his Feb. 1, 2023 memorandum and order denying the city's motion to dismiss that the "plaintiffs should never have been arrested in the first place, and the constitutionality of what the City thought [its] code said is irrelevant."

"Somehow, every single City official involved overlooked the exclusionary language [of constitutionally protected behavior] in the Ordinance,"

[SeekAndFind]

It seems the so-called "liberals" of this college town resent people who assert their rights against government overreach and oppression:

Rench told Fox News Digital that he has nevertheless become a pariah in his predominantly liberal community since the arrest and subsequent settlement. Rench says members of his community have accused him of being "an idiot" who does not "love his neighbor" and have urged him to "take your money and run" since the payout.

Unfortunately, the negative reinforcement for the city and for the bureaucrats with contempt for basic freedoms is pretty minimal, as KREM TV reports:

Under the terms of the settlement Moscow's liability insurance provider and Idaho Counties Risk Management Program will pay a total of $300,000 to Gabriel Rench and Sean and Rachel Bohnet. All claims against the City and the named employees will be dismissed with prejudice, releasing them from any liability.

The city's budget is unaffected by the need to cough up 300 grand.  The city's insurance costs may rise, but that will be buried in an annual budget item and provide no negative feedback to the citizenry over their officials' misbehavior.  And the bureaucrats and police — who went along with the arrests even as some expressed regret — will suffer no personal penalty.  

[Persevero]

So encouraged by this. Some took a stand! Many of us did in many ways.

[Paul46360]

GOOD!!! RIGHTS as libs see them are only for THEM..not ALL OF US!!

[davidb56]

There are TWO judges now that abide by the Constitution now? Clarance Thomas being the other, who makes ALL his decisions on the Constitution like he position requires.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: There are TWO judges now that abide by the Constitution now? Clarance Thomas being the other,

You might have forgotten Samuel Alito, the one who wrote the ruling to abolish the Roe vs. Wade decision.

[SunkenCiv]

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[FreedomPoster]

The Constitution means little to many of our Leftist friends.

[scrabblehack]

There’s got to be a Bryan Kohberger reference in here somewhere...

[davidb56]

yes.