A San Francisco attorney is suing Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state in an effort to overturn California’s anti-coronavirus rules that have essentially barred religious services from taking place.

Newsom’s March 19 stay-at-home order and various local bans on gatherings of all sizes are unconstitutional restrictions on religion, said Harmeet Dhillon, who filed the suit on behalf of three Southern California pastors.

Newsom, the state and various local officials have engaged “in a gross abuse of their power, have seized the coronavirus pandemic to expand their authority by unprecedented lengths, depriving ... residents of California of fundamental rights,” according to the suit, which was filed this week in federal court in Pasadena.

“We’re not asking that there be no restrictions, but that those restrictions be no greater than the least restrictive possible,” said Dhillon, who is especially incensed that businesses such as marijuana dispensaries, liquor stores and fast-food restaurants are allowed to stay open as essential activities, while churches are closed.

The churches she represents are willing to keep the social distancing standards during their services and require people to wear masks, Dhillon said.

The chance to practice their faith “is more important to many people than other things the government thinks are important,” said Dhillon, former vice chair of the state Republican Party and a current national GOP committeewoman.

The Bay Area’s March 16 “shelter-in-place” order, which was then the strictest in the United States, essentially forced all churches, temples, mosques and synagogues to suspend public services.

Some groups, such as the Catholic diocese of San Jose and the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California, had already made that move. But as time passed, pastors across the country began challenging the ban.

The pastor of a megachurch in Tampa, Fla., was arrested for holding Sunday services with hundreds of participants. A Louisiana pastor vowed to continue holding services even after being cited for ignoring the state ban on large gatherings.

In Richmond, Pastor Wyndford Williams of All Nations Church of God was cited for breaking the ban on gatherings after holding an Easter Sunday service for 40 people. The citation came after Williams refused to cooperate “and put the lives of dozens of parishioners at risk,” said Contra Costa County Sheriff David Livingston.

The concerns about religious restrictions are growing, Dhillon said.

“My phone is ringing off the hook,” she said. “I could literally file a hundred other suits like this.”

Government attorneys argued in a response to the suit Friday that churches can’t be exempt from the ban on gatherings because the coronavirus doesn’t discriminate between religious and secular events.

“The current pandemic unfortunately provides copious examples of individuals, including asymptomatic ones, spreading COVID-19 throughout communities through attendance at public gatherings, including in places of worship where physical distancing and cleanliness precautions were implemented,” the response states.

In South Korea, hundreds of coronavirus cases have been linked to the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, which held gatherings of tightly packed worshipers. Closer to home, Sacramento County health officials have said that 71 people associated with the Russian-language Bethany Slavic Missionary Church have tested positive for the virus, a figure that church leaders disputed.

There’s little argument that the government has the right to set some restrictions of religious practices in the light of a national emergency, said Michael Moreland, director of Villanova University’s McCullen Center for Law, Religion and Public Policy.

“The more neutral and broadly applied the restrictions are, the stronger the government’s position,” he said. “Where states get into trouble is if they start to create exceptions as to what’s essential.”

That’s the argument made in the suit, said Dhillon, who filed it in collaboration with the Center for American Liberty, a group she founded.

The list of essential services “prohibits all religious leaders from conducting in-person and out-of-home religious services, regardless of the measures taken to reduce or eliminate the risk of the virus spreading,” the suit states. “Meanwhile, the list deems the continuity of services provided by coffee baristas, burger flippers and laundromat technicians to be so necessary for society that these activities are permitted to continue.”

John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfwildermuth