The Story: The Supreme Court recently rejected a challenge to a California pandemic policy restricting occupancy in churches to 25 percent of building capacity or no more than 100 attendees. The Background: South Bay United Pentecostal Church and their senior pastor, Bishop Arthur Hodges III, sought an injunction to prevent enforcement against them of various “Stay-at-Home” orders that were issued by the State of California and the County of San Diego to help mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Southern District of California and the Ninth Circuit both denied the injunction, but since other federal courts had responded to similar issues differently, the Supreme Court was asked to decide the case. The church didn’t contest that state governments have a compelling interest in curbing pandemics that might require limiting personal liberties. Their contention was that the state was allowing other entities to reopen, such as retail (for curbside pickup only) and all manufacturing and warehousing facilities. The church considered the restriction “a severe deprivation of religious liberty.” (The sanctuary of their church building seats up to 600 people, but is usually only a third-, or half-filled, with 200–300 congregants.) Four justices (Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh) would […]
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