WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - Last week’s U.S. Supreme Court decision blocking New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s strict restrictions against attending religious services will have a profound impact on dozens of other lawsuits challenging similar restrictions in other states.
That's according to Christopher Ferrara, special counsel to the Thomas More Society, a Chicago-based public interest law firm that is representing religious groups in the cases.
“The Supreme Court has made it clear that governors can no longer use a public health emergency as a pretext for dictates shutting or severely restricting the use of houses of worship while secular businesses and activities they deem ‘essential’- and even certain favored ‘non-essential’ secular businesses and activities - are not subjected to the same draconian restrictions,” Ferrara said.
“What is considered ‘safe’ for grocery stores, liquor stores and massage parlors, must be considered safe for churches and synagogues.”
In the 5-4 ruling, the court sided with legal challenges from the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and Agudath Israel of America and put aside the governor’s attendance limits imposed by color codes -- no more than 10 worshippers permitted in red zones and no more than 25 in orange zones. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, whom the Senate confirmed just a month ago, voted with the majority.
In his opinion, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote: “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.”
Cuomo downplayed the ruling saying that houses of worship impacted by the decisions are no longer in the red and orange zones, so the attendance restrictions no longer apply.