(CP) – After months of legal battles over Gov. Gavin Newsom’s COVID-19-related restrictions, churches in California can finally restart their indoor worship services, though only at 25% capacity, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday night.
“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,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.
“Even if a full congregation singing hymns is too risky, California does not explain why even a single masked cantor cannot lead worship behind a mask and a plexiglass shield,” Gorsuch added. “Or why even a lone muezzin may not sing the call to prayer from a remote location inside a mosque as worshippers file in.”
Justices Elena Kagan, Stephen Breyer, and Sonia Sotomayor dissented. “Under the Court’s injunction, the State must instead treat worship services like secular activities that pose a much lesser danger,” 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.” READ MORE
