Court: State plays favorites during pandemic.
The U.S. Supreme Court struck down California's ban on in-person church services although it ruled the state can limit the number of people attending such services. The Wall Street Journal reported:
The Supreme Court late Friday exempted churches from California’s public-health order banning indoor gatherings in counties suffering widespread risk of Covid-19 infections, but permitted the state to forbid singing and chanting at worship services.The court’s order, based on challenges by two churches, exposed stark divisions among the justices over the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Three liberal justices, as they have throughout the emergency, would have approved the most aggressive interventions to stem the spread of infections.
Three of the most conservative justices viewed the state’s regulations as infringing on religious rights and would have granted the churches all they wished, or nearly so.
Chief Justice John Roberts sought to walk a middle path, and, along with Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, voted to set aside the ban on indoor worship while leaving intact the singing restriction.
California is the only state to ban all indoor church services, a fact that did not escape the Court's notice. Justice Gorusch spelled out the majority's thinking:
It has never been enough for the State to insist on deference or demand that individual rights give way to collective interests. Of course we are not scientists, but neither may we abandon the field when government officials with experts in tow seek to infringe a constitutionally protected liberty. The whole point of strict scrutiny is to test the government’s assertions, and our precedents make plain that it has always been a demanding and rarely satisfied standard.The Court nixed California's claim the church services involve large numbers of people:
The State presumes that worship inherently involves a large number of people. Never mind that scores might pack into train stations or wait in long checkout lines in the businesses the State allows to remain open. Never mind, too, that some worshipers may seek only to pray in solitude, go to confession, or study in small groups.The state argued churhgoers wouldn't refrain from shaking hands and hugging. The Court shook its head and said it didn't seem to have such concerns for salons, retailers, and parks. California "singles out religion for worse treatment than many secular activities."
The Court allowed the singing ban to stand but noted the state banned singing at all indoor gatherings, schools, and restaurants in a consistent fashion. However, Justice Gorusch pointed out Hollywood obtained an exemption from the singing ban as he accused the state of "playing favorites during a pandemic."
the State’s “temporary” ban on indoor worship has been in place since August 2020, and applied routinely since March. California no longer asks its movie studios, malls, and manicurists to wait. And one could be forgiven for doubting its asserted timeline. Government actors have been moving the goalposts on pandemic related sacrifices for months, adopting new bench- marks that always seem to put restoration of liberty just around the corner. As this crisis enters its second year— and hovers over a second Lent, a second Passover, and a second Ramadan—it is too late for the State to defend extreme measures with claims of temporary exigency, if it ever could. Drafting narrowly tailored regulations can be difficult. But if Hollywood may host a studio audience or film a singing competition while not a single soul may enter California’s churches, synagogues, and mosques,
something has gone seriously awry.
The vote was 6-3.
26 comments:
Singing Restriction? WTF?
Please open them up.....let the covid in...close the doors....no medical help for any of them
Next
Since this pandemic will still be going 3 or 4 years from now, it seems foolish to keep people from making peace with God every week, if they choose. Also seems foolish from killing all the sit down restaurants so that if we ever come out of this, our dining options will be car hop service at Sonic (Not that I couldn't eat a steak sandwich and some tater Tots with a Route 66 Diet Cherry Lime Aid every day.)
3:29 Would you say the same thing for a LGBT or Muslim gathering? Of course not. The pure hatred of Christians by many posters here is quite obvious.
It is frightening that there are three justices on the Supreme Court that would vote in dissent.
@3:29 yeah...and if Pharaoh had just issued masks to all the firstborn............
3:29 PM
Heathens get the rope.
" Since this pandemic will still be going 3 or 4 years from now, "
Nope.
It will not be going on after next year.
Good Lord . . . the damn 1918 Spanish virus killed more souls world wide over 100 years ago.
But it had disappeared (for the most part) by 1920.
And back then, they had no 3.2 Trillion dollars to spend on pharmaceutical research.
While this virus is very real, the left continues to scare their sheep with such bullshit.
The left has made the entire pandemic a political issue since last March.
Now that the numbers are starting to drop, the left has new angle.
( Vax is racist )
WTF
?????
I must admit, those Progressive Liberals are not only goofy, but they sure are funny !
the "damn" churches?
Better watch your headline writer, KF - that one can get you into long-time realllll trouble
The CCP doesn’t do religion, so it’s only a matter of time before Christianity is outlawed nationwide. The fight is against Jesus and not against organized religions other than Christianity. Prepare for the slow, stealthy invasion. These justices will be bought, if not already.
Score: Christians 6-Lions 3
Profanity is the result of a feeble mind's effort to express itself forcibly.
@3:29 - That you, Gavin? Work on that resume, son.
3:40 right on! let those who choose to not vaccinate, not wear a mask, and not distance meet in church and sing their little hearts out.
once there’s enough vaccine for the entire US population to have had one- lift all of the restrictions. and don’t back off. let the herd thin!
You may pray without being in a church.
3:40; It may go on even longer. It will stop when it is no longer economically beneficial for the folks in power, hospitals, etc. Will be added to an already list of so called medical problems that were to end mankind. You Covid lovers, just get back in line and I'm sure you get a booster for your booster and you will still get sick and, like the rest of humanity, you will die.
KF - was it really necessary to include "damn" churches in your title? By the way, where is today's sermon you always post?
@3:29
Do you all ever have any thing positive to say? Are you ever joyful? Do you just exist?
Anti-religion in California has been evolving. A Catholic church near Santa Cruz, California was cited by a local fire marshal in about 1980 for having lighted candles during services.
What about in-person dining and nightclubs? That still prohibited, or can the state only enforce capacity limits too? Why did Roberts pick only the examples that fit his narrative?
Churches are inanimate objects. They don't have feelings. They aren't thin-skinned snowflakes. They don't require comfort dogs. "Damn" doesn't make them roll into the fetal position.
(These truisms don't apply to liberal churches).
848, I agree with you, but I figure with a different slant.
Yes, don't worry about your mask, and don't take the devil's vaccine. That leaves more the rest of us. And when the herd starts to thin, it will be good for the genetic pool with all you dumbas**s that think the vaccine is a hoax. Getting that kind of idiocy out of the gene pool will be good for all the rest of us that will be remaining.
The worst beating I ever got in my life was when, as a kid, I said "damn church". That was a two belt whipping with mom and dad going at me at the same time and I thought it would never end. Here, 50 years later, I literally flinched when I read that sentence.
Point taken, but you just ought not say those words.
Didn't the courts rule that corporations are people? Wouldn't that make churches people too. Even a pulpit has feelings.
Me Pre COVID: Reading Italian news about grocery stores being completely bought out: This will not happen in USA, but it is scary.
Me During COVID: Okay, Okay, we will have a vaccine soon. If they want to go to church let them. If they want to risk their lives, let them.
Me During COVID: When will this shit end?
Me Now (lost 11 people): I will wear the mask, I don't care about you. Go to church, go to football, I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOU! I have an immune disease and care about ME. Go to softball, soccer, football, church, store, school, I don't care but am damn sick of all the bickering. The virus has killed many Republicans and Democrats, it is STUPID to risk more lives when we now are awaiting vaccines. Kids are behind, why not close schools and wait it out a few more months, OR, you can just kill more since politics are your priority. School employees should only work at this point after having a vaccine and be considered frontline workers. If they are going to risk their lives, then they should have a choice whether or not to be vaccinated.
Me Now: Don't care.
You wasted a lot of key strokes for somebody who 'don't care'.
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