The US Supreme Court in a splintered decision just before midnight Friday ruled 6-3 that in-person worship services in California can resume.
However, indoor services can only be at 25% capacity and singing is still restricted thanks to Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh.
The lawsuits against Governor Newsom were brought by South Bay United Pentecostal Church and Harvest Rock Church.
The statements from five of the conservative justices (6 if you count Roberts) were all over the place, but the most surprising opinion came from President Trump’s conservative Catholic appointee, Amy Coney Barrett.
Conservative Justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas said they would have lifted all restrictions on churches.
Conservative Justice Samuel Alito would have the entire ban lifted in 30 days from now unless the State “demonstrates clearly that nothing short of those measures will reduce the community spread of Covid-19 at indoor religious gatherings to the same extent as do the restrictions the State enforces with respect to other activities it classifies as essential.”
Trump appointees Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett concurred in a partial grant of application for injunctive relief – meaning churches can only reopen with 25% capacity and no singing allowed.
Chief Justice Roberts, Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh all favored a partial reopening.
“The applicants bore the burden of establishing their entitlement to relief from the singing ban. In my view, they did not carry that burden—at least not on this record,” Amy Coney Barrett wrote in an opinion.
All three liberal justices dissented and in a joint statement called the decision “armchair epidemiology.”
“Under the Court’s injunction, the State must instead treat worship services like secular activities that pose a much lesser danger,” liberal justice Elena Kagan wrote. “That mandate defies our caselaw, exceeds our judicial role, and risks worsening the pandemic. In the worst public health crisis in a century, this foray into armchair epidemiology cannot end well.”
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