The Knights of Columbus Petersburg Council 694 in Virginia filed a motion for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction against the National Park Service after officials refused to allow the Catholic group to hold its annual Memorial Day Mass in Poplar Grove National Cemetery.
First Liberty Institute and the international law firm McGuireWoods LLP are representing the Knights of Columbus, which said it has celebrated the Mass at Poplar Grove National Cemetery “every year since at least the 1960s.”
The legal firms said that last year, the park service relied on a new 2022 policy memorandum from the director of the park service that categorized the worship service as a prohibited “demonstration” in national cemeteries since it was a “religious service.” However, the Knights of Columbus order maintains that the policy memorandum is only based on a new interpretation of regulations that have existed for nearly four decades.
“The policy and the decision blocking the Knights of Columbus from continuing their long-standing religious tradition is a blatant violation of the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act,” John Moran, a partner at McGuireWoods, said. “We urge the court to grant our restraining order and allow the Knights to hold their service this Memorial Day.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to the park service for comment.
The lawsuit said that in the past, the park rangers at Poplar Grove National Cemetery helped the Catholic group with planning, which is consistent with the park service’s manual, stating that “National Cemeteries provide the setting for patriotic services and ceremonies honoring those thousands of veterans interred therein as well as those buried elsewhere.”
The national cemetery had reportedly suggested to the Knights of Columbus that it hold its Mass on a patch of grass near the main parking lot designated as the “First Amendment Area.”
The Knights of Columbus Petersburg Council 694 said another Knights of Columbus order based in Georgia was granted permission to celebrate Memorial Day Mass inside the Andersonville National Cemetery, and in response, the park service rescinded that permission.
Roger Byron, senior counsel at First Liberty, said the actions by the park service were “way out of line.”
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“This is the kind of unlawful discrimination and censorship RFRA and the First Amendment were enacted to prevent,” Byron said. “Hopefully the court will grant the Knights the relief they need to keep this honorable tradition alive.”
The Knights of Columbus Petersburg Council 694 believes its case will be successful since the park service is violating “their right to religious free exercise under the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).”