§ 110.0031.Prohibition on Orders Closing Places of Worship

One sentence, and it is absolute in a chapter otherwise built on balancing.

A government agency or public official may not issue an order that closes or has the effect of closing places of worship in this state or in a geographic area of this state.

There is no exception. No compelling interest, no least restrictive means — the prohibition stands alone, which makes it different in kind from the rest of the chapter.

Everything else here is subject to the strict scrutiny framework. A government agency may substantially burden free exercise where it carries that burden; it may never issue a closure order.

"Or has the effect of closing" is what gives the section reach. An order that never mentions worship — a general prohibition on gatherings above a stated size, a stay-at-home directive — is covered if that is its effect.

Without that clause the prohibition would be trivial to avoid, since no order would name places of worship.

"Or in a geographic area of this state" prevents a local workaround, so a county or city order is covered as fully as a statewide one.

The section names public officials as well as agencies, which is wider than the rest of the chapter and reaches an individual acting alone.

The provision came out of the pandemic closures, and it sits with the disaster provision in the application section — which makes the chapter unsuspendable and declares it not a regulatory statute.

Read together, the two make the Legislature’s position unmistakable: places of worship may not be closed by order, and the emergency powers that might otherwise permit it do not reach this chapter.