The U.S. Supreme Court has banned New York State from limiting church attendance during the epidemic, arguing that church attendance limits violate constitutional guarantees of religious freedom.
The federal Supreme Court made the ruling Wednesday evening by a 5-4 vote. Newly inaugurated Justice Amy Coney Barrett favored banning the limits, with three liberal justices and Chief Justice John Roberts dissenting.
Liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was alive when the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 earlier this year to allow California and Nevada to continue enforcing limits on church attendance during the epidemic.
The Supreme Court’s ruling was a temporary injunction requiring New York State to refrain from imposing restrictions while legal proceedings continue. The unsigned ruling stated, “The members of this court are not experts in public health, and we should defer to the judgment of those with special skills and responsibilities in this area. But even during an epidemic, the Constitution cannot be disregarded or forgotten. The restrictions at issue here effectively bar many people from religious services and strike at the heart of the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom.”
The ruling noted that churches in the red zone of the epidemic could have no more than 10 worshippers, but “critical” businesses, such as grocery stores, could remain open with no limit on the number of worshippers; churches in the orange zone could have no more than 25 worshippers, but “even non-critical businesses could remain open with no limit on the number of worshippers,” according to the ruling. It can decide for itself how many guests to receive.”
Chief Justice Roberts, in a dissenting opinion, said the court’s action was unnecessary because “none of the churches listed in the petition now has a fixed numerical limit.”
The ruling could allow New York State to revisit the size restrictions imposed on churches in virus hotspots, but the plaintiff Catholic and Orthodox churches that opposed the government’s restrictions are no longer bound by the original restrictions because the hotspots are now yellow zones, which allow churches to worship up to 50 percent of their maximum capacity, the plaintiff churches did not dispute.
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