Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, along with 37 other Republican senators, slammed Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear on Friday for coronavirus restrictions forcing private religious schools to suspend in-person classes.
In a brief filed to the Supreme Court, the senators threw their support behind Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s request for a ruling on whether K-12 religious schools are exempt from orders forcing all schools to move online. Cameron, along with Danville Christian Academy, a small Christian school, asked the court to vacate an order from a lower court enforcing Beshear’s rules.
Both Cameron and Danville Christian claimed that Beshear’s orders treat religious institutions unfairly compared to secular businesses, pointing out that the governor has allowed gyms, bowling alleys, and casinos to open up with fewer restrictions. The senators agreed, adding that the inequality of restrictions is tantamount to the injustice “previously seen only in dystopian fiction.”
Quoting the Supreme Court’s recent decision in favor of churches and synagogues seeking a temporary injunction against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the senators wrote that in this case, the court should also recognize that Beshear’s restrictions “strike at the very heart of the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious liberty.”
“COVID-19 is undoubtedly a serious health threat, but the Constitution applies even in difficult times,” the senators wrote. “This court should again remind governors across the country that shutdown orders cannot trample constitutional rights.”
Beshear on Friday responded in a brief asserting that “there is no scientific merit” to Cameron and Danville Christian’s position. Attorneys for the governor wrote that while he respects religious liberty, he does not believe it is in the interest of public health to allow any school to remain open during the pandemic.
Beshear in April came under fire when state troopers raided an Easter church service in which about 50 congregants gathered inside a church in defiance of his orders against large gatherings. The church sued the governor and was granted an injunction against his orders, setting a precedent for many other restriction-resistant congregations to do the same.
The court, since giving the New York houses of worship an injunction, has done the same for a cluster of churches in California. In both cases, recently minted Justice Amy Coney Barrett was the decisive vote, a departure from the court’s refusal this summer to grant injunctions to churches in California and Nevada.
