{"id":6223,"date":"2021-10-30T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-30T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/?p=6223"},"modified":"2021-10-26T16:35:33","modified_gmt":"2021-10-26T21:35:33","slug":"we-were-going-to-lose-jackson-county-settles-with-church-over-covid-19-limits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/?p=6223","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We were going to lose.’ Jackson County settles with church over COVID-19 limits"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Acknowledging they would likely lose in court, Jackson County and its health department will pay the legal fees of an\u00a0eastern Jackson County mega church that challenged the county\u2019s COVID-19 restrictions in federal court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The $146,750 payment to Abundant Life Baptist Church and attorney Jonathan R. Whitehead settles the case filed in May 2020. In exchange for the church dropping its lawsuit, the county agreed that any future health restrictions would be no more onerous on churches than secular gatherings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responsibility for paying the settlement is being shared equally by county government and University Health, formerly known as Truman Medical Centers, which runs the county health department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abundant Life, which holds services in Blue Springs and Lee\u2019s Summit, had alleged that the county\u2019s COVID-19 recovery plan violated both the U.S. and Missouri constitutions by discriminating against religion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thousands attend services each week at Abundant Life. But under the county\u2019s initial easing of COVID-19 restrictions, church services were grouped with other large gatherings and social events and limited to no more than 10 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Have you been affected financially by the COVID-19 pandemic? Call us at 816-524-4949 or visit our website to schedule a free consultation with an attorney.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Acknowledging they would likely lose in court, Jackson County and its health department will pay the legal fees of an\u00a0eastern Jackson County mega church that challenged the county\u2019s COVID-19 restrictions in federal court. The $146,750 payment to Abundant Life Baptist … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6223"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6225,"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6223\/revisions\/6225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}