During the interview with "Fox News @Night", Mississippi pastor, Arthur Scott, who sued against the city of Greenville for drive-in services, wants the mayor to lift the penalties.
Eight police officers interrupted Temple Baptist Church's drive-in service and fined everyone inside of cars for not complying with the Greenville city's order banning large gathering amid of COVID-19 Pandemic.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) lawyers filed the lawsuit Friday on behalf of Temple Baptist Church. This will confront with Mayor Errick Simmons' April 7 executive order that prohibits drive-in church services until a statewide shelter-in-place order is lifted.
According to "Fox News @Night", about 20 cars were gathered at the Wednesday drive-in service, and they were listening to an FM transistor radio with everyone inside of the car behaving appropriately.
The speaker for ADF, Kristen Waggoner, said the claimant was made on Friday and made an agreement a stay through Easter, but the mayor turned down the negotiation and said that the order would be enforced against the church. Waggoner also mentioned, "We're deeply concerned because the First Amendment is not completely suspended even during times of crisis."
Mississippi Pastor Arthur Scott stated that this ticketing made no sense saying "Just two blocks down the street, the Sonic, they can sit there and talk and eat, but a couple blocks up the other way, they can't even come with the windows rolled up, with me preaching inside the church."
Scott added "It is, for me, doing what I've been doing on that corner for 45 years, preaching the gospel. We've been doing this for three weeks without any problem and then the police came and wrote everybody $500 tickets without any warning or anything and we're just doing the same thing we've been doing all these years and we plan to keep on doing the same thing."
Waggoner ended with the statement, "The Constitution must be followed. Public safety is important, but the two are not exclusive. We can protect safety and engage in social distancing and still allow people to go to a drive-in service without exposing others to this pandemic."
Greenville Mayor Errick D. Simmons said that the fines were lifted, but he will still enforce the city's policy on prohibiting drive-in church services.
Meanwhile, The Trump administration will be supporting them in the court. The Trump administration filed a statement of interest which states "The facts alleged in the complaint strongly suggest that the city's actions target religious conduct." Adding "The city has the burden to demonstrate that prohibiting the small church here from holding the drive-in services at issue here services where attendees are required to remain in their cars in the church parking lot at all times with their windows rolled up and spaced consistent with CDC guidelines is the least restrictive means of furthering a compelling interest."
