The Supreme Court on Tuesday again ruled in favor of religious groups in Colorado and New Jersey that claimed state restrictions on respect for worship services violated religious freedom rights, most recently in rulings against the pandemic guidelines in recent weeks.
By unsigned orders, the judges overturned the lower court's opinion on challenges that favored the states: one brought by priest Kevin Robinson and rabbi Yisrael A. Knopfler to New Jersey and the other by a small Colorado church.
The cases highlight the influence of Judge Amy Coney Barrett on the bench. Before the arrival, Chief Justice John Roberts stood against the Liberals, including the late Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, against the house of prayer in similar disputes. However, following Barretto's arrival and the establishment of a strong 6-3 Conservative majority, the court has now changed course and has the necessary votes on the side of religious groups.
The impact of coronavirus restrictions on individual rights has severely fragmented the court. In a speech last month, Judge Samuel Alito said he was worried about the future of religious freedom in the United States, lamenting that it "would soon become an unfavorable right."
"We have never seen severe, severe and long-term restrictions," he said, adding that the pandemic had led to "previously unimaginable restrictions on personal freedom."
The New Jersey challenge concerned restrictions on attendance at the house of prayer, as well as the state’s “mask mandate,” which critics say violated free religious practice because there are exceptions for secular reasons, including health, exercise, and eating, but masks is only allowed for short removal in religious settings.
New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal defended the state's restrictions, telling judges that the state as "adapting to religious behavior - ensuring that religious activity receives at least as much protection as secular behavior, if not more."
New Jersey requires religious gatherings to fill no more than 25% of the room.
Grewal stressed that Covid-19 infected more than 13 million people in the United States and that "such sober numbers are getting worse" in a state that has already lost about 15,000 to the virus. The state also requires masks to be worn indoors in all locations. The only exception is when the activity cannot be done physically with a mask on, the other is to eat (or accept communion or drink from a Kiddush cup).
No judge publicly disagreed with the order.
The Colorado Challenge
In the Colorado case, the court ruled in favor of High Plains Harvest Church in Ault, Colorado.
Liberal judges Elena Kagan, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor disagreed. Roberts did not notice how he voted. The request of five judges should be granted.
The dispute was raised with Jill Hunsaker Ryan, executive director of the Colorado Department of Health and the Environment, who issued an order restricting 50 people from visiting the house of prayer. Church lawyers have argued that state policies that violate the constitution treat churches differently than secular organizations.
Advocates said church members “feel as if they have passed through the glass into a world where the right to buy gardening supplies is a favorable activity and the meeting as a worship of God is shifted to the category of unnecessary people. “The restrictions related to the pandemic were‘ supranational, unapplied closure orders, ’” they wrote.
State lawyers said Colorado recently revoked a public health order to lift capacity restrictions. "All houses of worship in the state of Colorado remain classified as critical businesses, now they have no more restrictions than any other critical business in the state, and in fact have maximum flexibility for any organization under Colorado's public health law," the state's attorney general said.
Writing to the Liberals, Kagan noted that the restriction had been lifted following a Supreme Court ruling in the New York case and said the case is now in dispute.
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