The Supreme Court in Washington.
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J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press
Politicians are increasingly seeking to restrict US core freedoms, and the courts are a last line of defense. The Supreme Court re-entered that violation late Friday with a partial injunction against California’s disparate treatment of religious gatherings in the pandemic.
A divided court imposed a total ban on in-house worship services on the state while allowing secular gatherings of comparable size and density (South Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Newsom). Judges Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito are said to have gone further and blocked the state’s 25% capacity restriction and ban on singing or chanting.
But Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett preferred to defer more to the state until the actual record is clearer. The three liberal judges are said to have deferred to be state experts.
Justice Gorsuch rebutted that argument in a statement accompanied by Justices Thomas and Alito. “Of course we are not scientists, but neither should we leave the field when government officials with experts in tow try to violate a constitutionally protected freedom, he wrote.
California worries that worship will bring people together for too long. Still, California doesn’t limit its citizens to getting in and out of other institutions; nobody is allowed to linger in shopping centers, salons or bus terminals ”, writes the Justice. “Nor, again, has California explained why more closely tailored options, such as a reasonable limit on the length of indoor religious gatherings, would not address his concerns.”
The pandemic restrictions are a foretaste of clashes to come as progressive rulers impose their cultural values on Americans with traditional views. To William F. Buckley Jr. To adjust, the Supreme Court will have to oppose the insulting government saying “Stop!” Calls.
Journal editorial report: Progressives now want ideas to be monitored. Image: Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post via Getty Images
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Appeared in the February 8, 2021 print edition as ‘.’