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“Singl(ing) out houses of worship for especially harsh treatment” draws strict scrutiny, the Supreme Court held in 1993. Many ascribe the Supreme Court’s intolerance of worship restrictions in 2021 to the addition of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, but the justices were simply applying precedent. “Deference, though broad, has its limits,” Chief Justice John Roberts noted.ĬOVID-19 and the future of religious freedom Lacking sufficient justification, it struck the cap. That same month, the Supreme Court narrowly sustained California’s 100-person cap on worship gatherings, citing a century-old case holding that “(o)ur Constitution principally entrusts ‘(t)he safety and the health of the people’ to the politically accountable officials of the States.”īut by February 2021, with vaccines becoming available, the court lost patience.
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The church pointed out that California permitted factories and restaurants to reopen with safeguards why couldn’t the church? California said no one could safely worship, even “in the most cavernous cathedral.” In May 2020, California allowed 100 worshipers. In early 2020, South Bay simply wanted to open. But we cannot overlook the degree to which worship was “relegat(ed) to third-class citizenship,” as charged by the South Bay United Pentecostal Church, which twice reached the Supreme Court in challenging California’s orders. The coronavirus has yet to relinquish its grasp on society. Many people reflexively side with public health, for good reason. California even encroached on in-home worship, prohibiting more than three families from worshipping in a person’s home or backyard. For instance, Nevada capped religious services at 50 people, while casinos could operate at 50% capacity. The high court overturned restrictions in California, Nevada and New York that regulated worship more harshly than economic activity. Cuomo, the court schooled the executive branch: “(T)he Constitution cannot be put away and forgotten.” What the pandemic revealed about religious freedom The unique pain of a COVID-19 surge at Christmas