A U.S. Denver District Court judge denied Andrew Wommack Ministries’ request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to override Colorado’s 175-person limit on religious gatherings under COVID-19 restrictions.

Doing so would “present a high risk of harm to the state of Colorado as well as the public in general,” U.S. District Judge Christine Arguello wrote in her seven-page order of denial.

Liberty Counsel, a conservative nonprofit legal organization based in Orlando, Fla., is appealing the ruling, sending the case to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. Attorneys are requesting an immediate injunction, pending appeal, Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, said in a statement.

“The virus does not discriminate between nonreligious gatherings, but Gov. Jared Polis does,” he said.

The organization filed a lawsuit on Wommack’s behalf on Monday, claiming Gov. Jared Polis and state and local health departments unjustly set “arbitrarily imposed numerical limitations” under COVID-19 constraints, including the cap on large gatherings, calling them unconstitutional and in violation of First Amendment rights.

The legal action materialized a week before Wommack’s annual Pastor’s Conference, which is scheduled to begin Monday night at its Woodland Park campus.

The event draws pastors and ministers from outside the area and the 652 students attending Charis Bible College this semester are required to attend, according to the lawsuit.

Wommack hasn’t decided what to do about the conference if the appeals court doesn’t have a ruling in time for the event or rejects the request, Staver said.

Teller County Public Health linked a spike in positive COVID-19 cases in the county to a Summer Family Bible Conference ministry founder Andrew Wommack held June 29-July 3 at Charis Bible College, which elicited a cease-and-desist order from the Colorado Attorney General’s Office on the day before the conference was to have ended.

Wommack continued the conference, concluding it on the intended day, saying that he had approval from Teller County Public Health and local law enforcement to hold the event.

Wommack said the organization was observing mandated practices including that participants would keep at least 6 feet apart, wear face coverings and frequently wash their hands, as well as complete sanitization.

The lawsuit requested a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against the state’s control over religious events, which Polis amended on Sept. 15.

Under Polis’ orders, religious organizations can conduct nonreligious counseling, social services and other “necessities of life” for individuals at its facilities in unlimited numbers and with social distancing practices in place. But worship services or other religious events must be limited to 175 people.

Staver said there’s “no constitutional justification to treat nonreligious gatherings better than religious gatherings,” and “the First Amendment gives preferential treatment to the free exercise of religion.”

The case is “far from over,” he added.

The complaint claims that Polis “excused from such restrictions untold thousands of protesters who have gathered all throughout Colorado cities, with no social distancing, and with no threat of criminal or legal sanction.”

Court rulings on pandemic restrictions regarding churches and religious organizations have been mixed.

Liberty Counsel received two 3-0 decisions from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of Maryville Baptist Church in Kentucky, regarding a ban on in-person worship, Staver said.

In June, a federal judge in Albany, N.Y., struck down executive orders that limited attendance at houses of worship, calling them “unconstitutional.”

But U.S. Supreme Court justices on a 5-4 vote in May rejected a challenge by the South Bay United Pentecostal Church in Chula Vista, Calif., to stop the state’s order that shut down religious services.