Judge found officials ‘overlooked’ language of ordinance
By Bob Unruh
(Unsplash)
A liberal college town in Idaho is paying three Christians $300,000 for arresting them during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, after a federal judge ruled against Moscow officials in his rejection of the city’s demand to dismiss the case.
A report from Fox News explains U.S. District Court Judge Morrison C. England Jr., said the “plaintiffs should never have been arrested in the first place, and the constitutionality of what the city thought [its] code said is irrelevant.”
He continued with his scolding, “Somehow, every single city official involved overlooked the exclusionary language in the ordinance,” referencing wording that allowed “constitutionally protected behavior.”
The city has announced it is settling the case with Gabriel Rench and Sean and Rachel Bohnet.
They sued after their First and Fourth Amendment rights were violated by the city, when officers arrested them at an outdoor “psalm sing” held by their church.
Fox reported, “Moscow, home to the University of Idaho, is a town of approximately 25,000 people about 80 miles south of Spokane, Washington. Christ Church is a local congregation of approximately 1,000 people belonging to the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches.”
At the time of the arrests, President Trump condemned the officers’ actions in taking Rench’s hymn book and leading him away in handcuffs to the jail.
