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Gabe Rench: Do Not Forget the Injustice

39 min

The 2020 Moscow Case

Arrested for Singing Psalms: The 2020 Moscow Case

On September 23, 2020, Christ Church held a “Psalm Sing” in the Moscow City Hall parking lot to protest the extension of Mayor Bill Lambert’s COVID-19 mask mandate. Patriots for Idaho founder Gabe Rench was arrested along with Sean and Rachel Bohnet for not wearing a mask or social distancing among a crowd of roughly 200 worshippers. Yet the city’s own code exempted “any and all expressive and associative activity” protected by the U.S. and Idaho Constitutions, including religious activity.

The Thomas More Society defended Gabe. The charges against him were dismissed, and the Society then took the City of Moscow to federal court. A federal judge rejected the city’s bid to win the case, and the city settled for $300,000.

“We had done the psalm sing in the past under the same [mask] resolution and we weren’t arrested, we weren’t warned… we were just taking our constitutional liberties to do what we’re allowed to do under the Constitution – worship.”— Gabe Rench, via Thomas More Society

“The city violated its own ordinance when law enforcement wrongly arrested Gabriel Rench and Sean and Rachel Bohnet.”— Michael Jacques, Thomas More Society Special Counsel

Timeline

September 23, 2020Gabe Rench and Sean and Rachel Bohnet are arrested at the Christ Church Psalm Sing outside Moscow City Hall.
January 9, 2021Idaho’s Second Judicial District Court (Latah County) signs the order dismissing all charges in State of Idaho v. Gabriel Rench.
March 23, 2021The Thomas More Society files Rench, Bohnet & Bohnet v. City of Moscow in the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho for violating their First and Fourth Amendment rights.
February 1, 2023Senior U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England, Jr. denies the city’s motion for summary judgment and sends the case to settlement.
July 25, 2023The Thomas More Society announces a $300,000 settlement with the City of Moscow.