Never mind that IL Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot addressed the tens of thousands of unregulated people gathering to protest in Chicago, or that they were forced to drop illegal restrictions on churches when we drug them to the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court. They've brazenly issued yet more restrictions on churches!

Tens of thousands of people, including Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and IL Gov. J.B. Pritzker, have been thronging the streets of the windy city for the last two weeks.

No social distancing measures or limits on the number of people have been enforced. No "disorderly conduct" citations have been given to the protestors in these mass gatherings. No Health Department "Summary Abatement" threats to destroy the facility were delivered at the packed building where Gov. Pritzker spoke Monday afternoon.

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But even though a reported 30,000 people gathered, unregulated, in Chicago's Union Square on Saturday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot chose to dictate new restrictions against churches!

In a notice filed June 6 entitled, "City of Chicago Announces Reopening Guidelines for Places of Worship," Mayor Lightfoot decreed new restrictions against Chicago-area churches, including our clients. The restrictions contain requirements that churches have less than 50 people or 25% capacity in any room, facemasks must always be worn and all unrelated (non-family member) attendees must stand a minimum of six feet apart.

Meanwhile, that very day across town, 30,000 people went unchallenged by the police or city officials as they stood shoulder to shoulder, singing and chanting, most without masks. And both Gov. Pritzker and Mayor Lightfoot have supported, applauded and even spoken at these non-socially distanced "mass gatherings."

The staging area for two of the protests were at or near churches, complete with food trucks where people made their signs before they began marching.

Mayor Lightfoot apparently has no problem with people ignoring "social distancing measures" unless those people are in a church! This unequal treatment of issuing edicts to some, but not all, clearly demonstrates the arbitrary and discriminatory nature of Mayor Lightfoot's and Gov. Pritzker's actions against churches.

Chicago has become the deadliest city in America. Over the Pentecost weekend, 18 people were shot and killed in a 24-hour period and many more were injured. The godless leadership has booted God from the public square and the vacuum has been filled by record crime levels.

These are lawless leaders who see no place for church or God in their lives, or yours.

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Let's recap the abuses against our Chicago-area Romanian church clients:

• Mayor Lightfoot criminally charged the pastors at both churches for having more than 10 people at a service. These charges have not been dropped.

• Mayor Lightfoot ticketed and towed cars for nine blocks around one of our clients' churches to try to prevent them from meeting. These tickets and fines have not been dropped.

• Mayor Lightfoot then sent police officers to block the church's private parking lot to prevent churchgoers from attending service.

• Mayor Lightfoot's Commissioner of Health sent a Summary Abatement notice to our client's church, giving discretionary authority to take possession of church property and to destroy or bulldoze the property with no judicial process. This Summary Abatement has not been rescinded.

In a recent interview with the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Alderman Lopez characterized Mayor Lightfoot as someone who always needs an enemy and is always spoiling for a fight. Alderman Lopez said,

She can only exist with an opponent. She doesn't know how to exist in a world of collaboration, Lopez told the Chicago Tribune. She has to have someone in constant opposition in order to maker her worldview stick.

In this instance, Mayor Lightfoot has chosen God and churches as her opponent. She displays an overt hostility to these churches that is forbidden by the U.S. Constitution.

By the grace of God, Liberty Counsel will be there to defend churches and the religious freedom of every American to gather and worship as the Lord leads – not as the government dictates.

But we need your help. Our attorneys and staff are working around the clock on the many cases we are handling right now. We are now preparing for the oral argument before a federal Court of Appeals on Friday afternoon in which we are defending the Romanian churches.

I'll have an update for you on additional cases later this week. This is a very busy week for our legal team.

The addition of these federal lawsuits on behalf of criminally charged pastors and illegally closed churches, plus the legal consultations with literally thousands of pastors and churches nationwide to our existing case load (two of which are pending before the U.S Supreme Court), has greatly strained our resources.

We need your help now to refill our legal defense fund to ensure that Liberty Counsel can continue to successfully defend God's people and plan -- which requires religious liberty -- in the American court system.

Please, give generously today. The legal battles we fight today will determine our children's and grandchildren's freedom tomorrow.

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In Christ,

Mat Staver
Founder and Chairman

P.S. As a public interest law firm, our legal services are always free to our clients.  Few people could afford to defend themselves against well-funded giants like Planned Parenthood or state and city governments on their own.

YOUR generous donations make our defense of churches, pastors, Christian counselors and Planned Parenthood whistle-blowers possible. Please, make your best contribution today. Select here.