Last week, the Supreme Court slammed the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’s decision that upheld California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s arbitrary, authoritarian COVID-19 restrictions.
In a four-page unsigned order, five justices (Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett) agreed they would grant the application for injunctive relief. This order is particularly important.
It remains consistent with the justices’ previous opinions regarding churches that have appealed to the Supreme Court this last year in order to continue operating. It also underscores just how subjective and authoritarian Newsom’s pandemic policies have been for people of faith. It wasn’t just crazy, bigoted, religious people who think so; the Supreme Court agrees.
In Tandon v. Newsom, the five justices wrote, “First, California treats some comparable secular activities more favorably than at-home religious exercise, permitting hair salons, retail stores, personal care services, movie theaters, private suites at sporting events and concerts, and indoor restaurants to bring together more than three households at a time.”
That this needs to be pointed out in every single one of the last five cases seems redundant to the point of frustration. Yet, Newsom kept his restrictions on houses of worship with an almost smug assurance. He could not have been more wrong. Why did people go along with it?
Gorsuch said that “although California officials changed the challenged policy shortly after this application was filed, the previous restrictions remain in place until April 15th, and officials with a track record of ‘moving the goalposts’ retain authority to reinstate those heightened restrictions at any time.”
Of all the justices, Gorsuch seems to consistently hit at the heart of the issue: No one disagrees that people have the right to worship, but with the ruse of a health crisis close at hand, it was too easy for Newsom to place inconsistent restrictions on secular businesses and houses of worship (or in this case, people who wanted to continue hosting Bible studies in their home) then change his mind and undo them when lawsuits ensued. The court made it clear on Friday that “even if the government withdraws or modifies a COVID restriction in the course of litigation, that does not necessarily moot the case.”
I’m glad people of faith have the judicial branch to appeal to when they need to “petition the government for a redress of grievances,” but a five-win streak should suggest something is awry with the system that put them there, not the one that rescued them. Churches were forced to appeal to the courts because they wanted to worship and Newsom wasn’t letting them.
They knew the right was already theirs. They knew his restrictions were inconsistent across the state, they should have been allowed to be open during much of the pandemic, and still, they were restricted. If there is another pandemic, I hope people of faith remember their track record of “wins” and, with these Supreme Court decisions in mind, worship freely as is their right.
Nicole Russell (@russell_nm) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota.
