{"id":1917283,"date":"2023-04-20T17:56:29","date_gmt":"2023-04-20T21:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/alarming-lawyer-for-california-church-responds-after-million-dollar-covid-fine-handed-down\/"},"modified":"2023-04-20T17:57:05","modified_gmt":"2023-04-20T21:57:05","slug":"alarming-lawyer-for-california-church-responds-after-million-dollar-covid-fine-handed-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/alarming-lawyer-for-california-church-responds-after-million-dollar-covid-fine-handed-down\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Alarming\u2019: Lawyer For California Church Responds After Million Dollar COVID Fine Handed Down"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Falarming-lawyer-for-california-church-responds-after-million-dollar-covid-fine-handed-down%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1917283&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A lawyer representing a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/california\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">California<\/a> church <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/outrageous-california-church-ordered-to-pay-over-a-million-dollars-in-covid-fines\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recently ordered to pay<\/a>\u00a0$1.2 million in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/covid\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">COVID<\/a> fines responded to the ruling this week, saying that the case has major <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/first-amendment\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">First Amendment<\/a> ramifications.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mariah Gondeiro, a lawyer with Advocates for Faith and Freedom representing Calvary Chapel <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/san-jose\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">San Jose<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, told The Daily Wire on Tuesday that she believed the church had a solid case to appeal the fines and that the public should be disturbed by the treatment of the church by the county.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThis case should alarm the public, that this is what happens when you have unchecked power. This is what it can lead to. It can lead to an individual or individuals doing whatever they can to maintain power, and to enforce their rules even if their rules go against the constitution,\u201d she said, describing the situation as \u201calarming.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The comments followed a decision from Superior Court Judge Evette Pennypacker ordering the church to pay $1.2 million in fines after it did not follow COVID restrictions put in place by Santa Clara County, requirements the church said violated its religious freedom.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThis county has been very vengeful. It isn\u2019t about health and safety because the evidence shows that they can\u2019t trace anything to the church,\u201d she added. \u201cThey are trying to make a statement that no one will ever disobey their orders again.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The county said the orders were aimed at public health and did not target religious institutions. \u201cIt\u2019s the County\u2019s job to take care of its residents and protect the public health,\u201d Santa Clara County Counsel James R. Williams <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/californiaglobe.com\/articles\/santa-clara-county-superior-court-judge-rules-against-calvary-chapel-san-jose-orders-them-to-pay-1-2-million\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">said<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u201cCalvary\u2019s arguments have been rejected at almost every turn. We are gratified that the Court once again saw through Calvary\u2019s unsupported claims and found them meritless.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The ruling is the latest in the battle between the county and the church, which began after the church was fined starting in November 2020 and up to June 2021 when it did not follow the county\u2019s restrictions and challenged the rules in court. The church was fined over masks, social distancing, and hosting large gatherings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b data-stringify-type=\"bold\"><a class=\"c-link c-link--focus-visible\" href=\"https:\/\/onelink.to\/dwapp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-stringify-link=\"https:\/\/onelink.to\/dwapp\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Gondeiro expects the case to be heard by a federal appeals court and was confident in the church\u2019s case. Other churches in the Golden State have also gone to court over related issues, with churches in the San Diego area and Los Angeles County picking up legal victories.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThis is much bigger than Pastor Mike [McClure] and this church,\u201d Gondeiro said. \u201cThis is government overreach at its finest, and if we don\u2019t hold this county accountable the implications will be far and wide.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A lawyer representing a California church recently ordered to pay\u00a0$1.2 million in COVID fines responded to the ruling this week, saying that the case has major First Amendment ramifications. Mariah Gondeiro, a lawyer with Advocates for Faith and Freedom representing Calvary Chapel San Jose, told The Daily Wire on Tuesday that she believed the church<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":200,"featured_media":1917284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[6531,4045,5643,4127,14169,5032,13957,4742,4499],"class_list":["post-1917283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire","tag-alarming","tag-california","tag-church","tag-covid","tag-dollar","tag-fine","tag-handed","tag-lawyer","tag-responds"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/200"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1917283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1917284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1917283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1917283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1917283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}