Gov. Brown sued over "Stay home, save lives" executive orders

Gov. Brown sued over "Stay home, save lives" executive orders

Hopes to be open as soon as possib newswatch 12's alicia rubin spoke with governor brown's office yesterday about the lawsuit and spoke with the lead attorney today about where that lawsuit stands and the demands it makes.

Multiple oregon churches, businesses and individuals have joined this lawsuit.

It was filed just last week and is scheduled for a hearing tomorrow.

Mike says: financially we're not looking for anything in fact the attorney fees were one dollar so we're trying to get churches open to help people plaintiffs in the case want to see the current executive orders declared invalid ray says: she initially at the on-site she has 30 days to try to deal with the emergency and she has fairly broad power during that time but before the 30 days is up if she needs additional time she has to go to the legislature according to the lawsuit, gov.

Brown did not follow that procedure.

In tomorrows hearing, the prosecution will be seeking a preliminary injuction, which - if granted - would stop the state from enforcing the governor's orders and declare them invalid between now and the trial.

Ray hacke is the lead attorney for the plaintiff's and says another issue the lawsuit addresses is the fact that the current executive order threatens fines and/or jail time for failing to comply.

Ray says: "these churches don't want to live in fear of violating the law they don't want their congregants to live in fear of violating the law new horizon christian fellowship is one of the many churches that is a plaintiff in the case, when i asked about their concern for their congregation, the lead pastor said they would take precautions if they were allowed to reopen.

Mike says: "we have a huge outdoor worship area that will probably be our first area that we would set up tables for families they'd be able to be distanced" ray says: "churches have to decide for themselves if it's worth the risk in my conversation with governor brown's office yesterday, the governor's chief of staff said he couldn't say much about the lawsuit since it is currently underway but he did say one of the biggest challenges is the fact that virus spreads most rapidly where people congregate.

Nik says: we really just want to keep people safe that's the primary focus ray says if churches did reopen and members of the congregation got sick, they could be held civilly liable.

We'll continue to follow this developing story -- be sure to stay with newswatch 12 for the latest updates.

Reporting from home, alicia rubin,