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
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