On the last day of 2025, a federal court ruled that Gather Church could resume the operation of its mobile needle exchange and that a Lewis County ordinance regulating the service will be null and void for the time being.
U.S. District Court Judge for the Western District of Washington David G. Estudillo issued a preliminary ruling in the final week of December providing injunctive relief to Gather Church in a case the church filed against Lewis County in September 2025.
The injunctive relief will effectively allow the church to resume the operation of its mobile harm reduction program for the foreseeable future as the parties continue on with the lawsuit.
In granting injunctive relief and permitting Gather Church to continue operating its mobile syringe service program (SSP), the federal judge found that Gather Church’s case against Lewis County as presented has a good chance of succeeding in court and therefore sought to mitigate any harm to the group in the interim.
The case is still in active litigation and a final ruling on the case has not been issued.
“The Court finds Plaintiff has met the necessary requirements for a preliminary injunction,” reads the final paragraph of the ruling. “Defendants are HEREBY ENJOINED during the pendency of this litigation from enforcing Lewis County Ordinance 1354, codified at Lewis County Code Chapter § 8.80, against Plaintiff in this action.”
The ruling now actively prevents the defendant, Lewis County, from enforcing its syringe exchange and harm reduction regulations for the length of the active lawsuit.
In the wake of the ruling, Gather Church Pastor Cole Meckle issued a statement sharing his joy that he and his team would be able to resume the operation of their harm reduction service as originally designed.
"The harm reduction program at Gather Church saves lives, and we are thrilled that the court’s ruling allows us to get back to our core religious mission of serving our community,” Meckle said in an emailed statement.
Lewis Commissioners Lindsey Pollock, Scott Brummer and Sean Swope declined a request for comment on the subject, citing the active litigation.
In April 2024, the Lewis County Board of Commissioners — with the same members it has today — passed Lewis County Ordinance 1354. The board passed the ordinance two votes to one. Commissioner Pollock voted against the ordinance while offering a milder version. At the time, the commissioner cited public health concerns associated with limiting the local needle exchange and harm reduction program too tightly.
The local ordinance that went into effect shortly thereafter banned the operation of mobile needle exchanges like the one Gather Church had begun operating. It also banned any needle exchange from operating within 750 feet of a school, park or library, or within any residential areas. Finally, it added stipulations about the supplies the program could offer, requiring the program to only offer clean needles in exchange for used ones and banning the distribution of other drug paraphernalia or harm reduction supplies such as pipes or fentanyl testing kits.
Gather Church has in the meantime operated its needle exchange exclusively out of its brick-and-mortar location in Centralia, abiding by limitations outlined in Lewis County Code.
Gather Church, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, alleged in its lawsuit that the ordinance violates state and federal laws, including the Americans With Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act, anti-discrimination laws and state laws that protect religious freedoms and encourage harm reduction.
The lawsuit requested both declaratory and injunctive relief from the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. The lawsuit does not request any financial compensation but instead requests a declaration that the ordinance at issue does not have legal standing. The lawsuit asks for an injunction to prevent the county from enforcing the ordinance. Gather Church has now, at least temporarily, been granted one of those requests.
After filing its initial lawsuit, Gather Church filed to request preliminary injunctive relief roughly a month later, citing the risk that without injunctive relief the ordinance at issue would harm the organization and the people it serves.
In the preliminary ruling filed by the court on Wednesday, Dec. 31, the court clarified that to receive injunctive relief a party had to establish that its lawsuit could succeed, that the party is likely to suffer “irreparable harm,” that it would be equitable to grant relief and, finally, that the relief is in the public interest. In the rest of the document, the court found that Gather Church’s request succeeded on all counts.
“In summary, Plaintiff has established a likelihood of success on the merits of its ADA claim,” reads the document. “Here, the record indicates the Ordinance violates the ADA because it impermissibly prohibits disabled individuals from receiving health services based on their disability while at the same time prohibiting Plaintiff from offering those services because of its association with such disabled individuals.”
