By Matt Vespa
Alas, we have a victory for religious freedom in the
COVID lockdown era. The Supreme Court recently ruled that New York Gov. Andrew
Cuomo illegally targeted churches in his COVID lockdown order—and Justice Amy
Coney Barrett was the deciding vote. In the 5-4 decision, the Court ruled
Cuomo’s edict violated First Amendment rights (via NYT):
The Supreme Court late Wednesday night barred restrictions
on religious services in New York that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo had imposed to
combat the coronavirus.
The vote was 5 to 4, with Chief Justice John G.
Roberts Jr. and the court’s three liberal members in dissent. The order was
the first in which the court’s newest member, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, played
a decisive role.
[…]
In an unsigned opinion, the majority said Mr. Cuomo’s
restrictions violated the First Amendment’s protection of the free exercise of
religion.
In a concurring opinion, Justice Neil M. Gorsuch said Mr.
Cuomo had treated secular activities more favorably than religious ones.
“It is time — past time — to make plain that,
while the pandemic poses many grave challenges, there is no world in which the
Constitution tolerates color-coded executive edicts that reopen liquor stores
and bike shops but shutter churches, synagogues, and mosques,” Justice Gorsuch
wrote.
The court’s order addressed two applications: one filed
by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, the other by two synagogues, an
Orthodox Jewish organization and two individuals. The applications both said
Mr. Cuomo’s restrictions violated constitutional protections for the free
exercise of religion, and the one from the synagogues added that Mr. Cuomo had
“singled out a particular religion for blame and retribution for an uptick in a
societywide pandemic.”
This is a breath of fresh air since the Supreme Court had
previously either upheld COVID restrictions on religious services or
shot down the legal challenges brought before them. In those cases,
Chief Justice John Roberts, who arguably is now the face of the Court’s liberal
wing, was the one who delivered the death blow. In the Nevada case, SCOTUS
upheld limitations concerning church attendance but was fine with movie
theaters and casinos operating with a more cavalier capacity policy. It
made no sense, and Justice Neil Gorsuch torched the entire premise in his
dissent in just
a single paragraph. With Barrett on the Court, Roberts is now an
irrelevant factor. We have a solid 5-4 majority now. Expect more good things
with Justice Amy Coney Barrett in Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat.