Citing “recent judicial rulings” namely a weekend order by the U.S. Supreme Court California public health officials uncapped Covid limits on churches, mosques and synagogues.
In this April 10, 2020 file photo, the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels is seen empty without its congregation on Holy Friday, as Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez, second from left, leads the nation’s Catholics in praying during a National Moment of Prayer in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, Pool)
(CN) Following a handful of Supreme Court decisions in favor of congregants challenging California’s Covid-19 restrictions on in-person services at places of worship, state public health officials this week lifted capacity limits from its reopening scheme.
California Attorney General’s office notified the Thomas More Society that the State officially lifted all capacity limits on churches, effective April 12, 2021. This news came shortly before Thomas More Society attorneys were scheduled to discuss the deposition of the California State Health Officers as well as key documents that the State had to turn over before an evidentiary hearing next month in
South Bay United Pentecostal Church, et al v. Gavin Newsom, et al. On Friday, April 9, 2021, the Supreme Court issued its 5th rebuke of California’s religious discrimination. After Thomas More Society attorney Paul Jonna read that case, he sent the following email to the Attorney General’s office:
California Lifts COVID Capacity Limits on Places of Worship
Uploaded: , Wednesday, Apr 14, 2021
By Courthouse News Service
California public health officials this week lifted capacity limits on in-person services at places of worship from the state’s reopening scheme, following a handful of Supreme Court decisions in favor of congregants challenging the state’s COVID-19 capacity limits.
“In response to recent judicial rulings, effective immediately, location and capacity limits on places of worship are not mandatory but are strongly recommended,” the California Department of Public Health wrote on the state’s industry guidelines website Monday night.
But one attorney told Courthouse News the capacity restrictions lifted Monday don’t moot the lawsuits challenging California’s COVID-19 restrictions, since the state has vowed to implement restrictions again should a COVID-19 variant create another public health emergency.
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For 30 years, the Supreme Court applied a simple rule when someone with a religious objection to a state law sought an exemption from that law. So long as the law applied equally to everyone, regardless of whether someone is religious or not, then everyone had to comply with the law.
As the Court held in
Employment Division v. Smith (1990), religious objectors must follow “neutral law[s] of general applicability.”
Ever since Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the Court last fall, however, the Supreme Court has been rapidly dismantling
Smith. On Friday night, the Court fired a bullet into