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Washington, DC (77WABC) – The U.S. Supreme Court has lifted California’s ban on indoor church services, overturning decisions by federal judges in San Diego and San Bernardino, and the 9th Circuit Court in San Francisco, which previously upheld the state’s orders.
In a 6-3 decision, the ruling said the state may limit attendance at indoor services to 25% of the building’s capacity. The ruling also stated singing and chanting at worship services may be restricted as well.
The Friday night decision by the conservative justices was aimed at Governor Gavin Newsom’s strict restrictions on indoor church services as a result of the spiking COVID-19 numbers throughout the Golden State.
South Bay United Pentecostal Church, a 600-seat congregation near San Diego, and one of the two plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed against the state, had filed an emergency request asking the high court to block enforcement of some COVID-19 provisions, including a prohibition against all indoor services in some parts of the state as well attendance limits in others.
“…Federal courts owe significant deference to politically accountable officials with the “background, competence, and expertise to assess public health,” said Chief Justice John Roberts said in the 15-page ruling.
The court’s three liberal Associate Justices dissented.
“Justices of this court are not scientists,” Associate Justice Elena Kagan wrote. “Nor do we know much about public health policy. Yet today the court displaces the judgments of experts about how to respond to a raging pandemic.”
The Supreme Court ruling comes after the highest court in the land has been called upon to decide on a number of high-profile emergency request — where Justices are being asked to evaluate state orders looking to decrease the spread of Coronavirus — despite the rights given on religious freedom in the First Amendment of the Constitution.
Back in November of last year, The Supreme Court placed religious freedom before pandemic precautions, when the court temporarily blocked rules in New York that severely restricted gatherings at houses of worship in areas hit hardest by COVID-19.
The Supreme Court during that time, ruled 5-4 — stating Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s limits on churches, synagogues and other houses of worship to 10 or 25 worshipers in hard-hit regions appeared to violate the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause.
The High Court has also been asked upon to decide in COVID-19 restriction cases in Nevada and Illinois as well.
