U.S.
Supreme Court Declines to Act on Challenge to California
Limits
on Religious Gatherings
Last evening, the U.S. Supreme Court, by a vote of 5-4,
declined to reverse a prior decision upholding the Covid-19 pandemic related
limits on religious gatherings adopted in California.
Initially, the suit was filed objecting to the
classification of religious gatherings as “Class 3,” a grouping that included bars,
hair salons and movie theaters, rather than Class 2, which includes
non-essential curb-side retail, dine-in restaurants and certain factories. The church sought an injunction against the
state government enforcing the classification as to churches in Class 3 and directing
that they be treated as Class 2. The trial court denied the requested relief,
and the church appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In a 2-1 decision the denial of the requested
relief was affirmed; HERE IS A LINK to that decision. It was from this determination that an appeal
was made to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Last evening the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the decisions below. Notably, Chief Justice Roberts joined the
four “liberal” justices in denying relief.
Explaining why he joined in the decision to not grant the injunction sought,
he wrote that:
Although California’s guidelines place restrictions on
places of worship, those restrictions appear consistent with the Free Exercise
Clause of the First Amendment. Similar
or more severe restrictions apply to comparable secular gatherings, including
lectures, concerts, movie showings, spectator sports, and theatrical
performances, where large groups of people gather in close proximity for
extended periods of time. And the Order
exempts or treats more leniently only dissimilar activities, such as operating
grocery stores, banks, and laundromats, in which people neither congregate in
large groups nor remain in close proximity for extended periods.
HERE IS A LINK to his concurring opinion.
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