Dear John,
I need to enlist your help with an important federal lawsuit PJI has filed against the Attorney General and Director of the Department of Social Services in California.
This case stems from a horrific government raid on a church preschool during the COVID-19 restrictions. Even after the Supreme Court repeatedly rebuked California for closing churches—including PJI’s own Supreme Court win in a case out of Santa Clara County—state authorities barged into a church preschool in the San Diego area, traumatizing the toddlers and their teachers.
What did the church preschool do to deserve this treatment? It respected parents’ rights to decide for themselves whether their young children should wear masks all day. (And of course, we now know that millions of children are lagging behind developmentally because of the state’s cruel and excessive insistence on masking.)
We fought hard for many months on behalf of this church, its preschool, and its director through an Orwellian state-prescribed administrative process. But the system was rigged—despite the mounds of evidence we produced in their defense, the administrative law judge approved a 2-year “probation” for the preschool and a lifetime ban on the director from working in any preschool in the state.
One of the most shocking aspects of this sham trial was that the final decision, before being rendered, was first submitted to the Department of Social Services for their edits and approval. This was the equivalent of a judge asking permission from the prosecutor before finding a defendant not guilty!
>>Support PJI today to ensure we can continue to fight for pre-schools like this!
Because this legal nightmare violated so many aspects of church autonomy, parental rights, and basic due process, we are now contesting it in federal court.
Pacific Justice Institute is suing California’s Attorney General and Director of the Department of Social Services to challenge the California Child Care Act’s unlawful and substantial burden on the free exercise of religion for all California churches.
You see, this is a much larger problem than an attack on one church or preschool.
We represent three churches in San Diego County, but in practice, PJI’s lawsuit applies to all churches in the state. The California Child Care Act discriminates against all California churches by imposing undue and unlawful restrictions on their ability to minister to children, particularly preschool-age children.
The Act requires almost every preschool in California, including daycare ministries in churches, to be defined as a daycare center. Once a church’s ministry is defined under this Act as a daycare center, the church ministry is subject to state regulation—a host of restrictive protocols and woke rules by the Department of Social Services.
The state abuses its regulatory power by forcing church daycare ministries to waive their fundamental constitutional rights. Under the Act, churches are stripped of their First Amendment rights and are not allowed to require participation in prayer or include religious activities as part of their daycare ministry!
The Act further violates a church’s Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights, subjecting churches, such as our clients, to unlawful search and seizure when state authorities enter church property unannounced and seize records. State authorities can interview children without the consent or even the knowledge of their parents. State authorities can interview church employees without reading them their Miranda rights, even though criminal sanctions apply to violations of the Act.
Churches lose their right to a trial by jury and even the basic, fundamental right to face their accuser. Churches are further deprived of their basic evidentiary rights at hearings conducted by the Department of Social Services, losing their Sixth and Seventh Amendment rights. To run a simple preschool ministry in California, a church has to forfeit First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
The California Child Care Act is neither neutral nor applied equally. Preschools run by the Department of Education are exempt from the Act’s oppressive regulations and do not have to waive their constitutional rights. Yet a church’s preschool ministry is subject to strict regulation.
Our lawsuit is about preventing discrimination against Christian ministries and blocking the preferential treatment of secular nonprofit groups. The great news is that we have an excellent case, and we will never charge our clients for our legal services. In the private sector, cases like these against state governments can easily run into the many hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs.
John, this is where we urgently need your help. High-impact cases like this are a huge undertaking—but hugely important. We handle them as cost-effectively as possible. Our donors, board members, and other organizations continue to be amazed by how much we are able to accomplish with each dollar given to us.
But every case still involves significant investments of our time and resource. Our attorneys are doing the heavy lifting, fighting for all of our rights. We urgently need you to come alongside us and help us with a generous financial gift.
This is just one of more than 90 cases we currently have in litigation. We’ve just opened up an office in Arizona to serve the many requests we have been getting from that state. Never in my lifetime have I seen so many needs, and at the same time felt so much encouragement that God is equipping us to rise to the challenge.
I need to close this email for now, but I eagerly await your response. Please don’t delay—every day counts in our battle for the future of our children and grandchildren.
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Running the Race,
Brad Dacus
Founder and President, Pacific Justice Institute
P.S. Time is running out--reserve your spot today for our 25th Anniversary Celebration of Justice this October in Southern California! Get all the details and your tickets at www.pji.org before they’re gone!
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