© J. Scott Applewhite/APThe Supreme Court building on Capitol Hill, Washington D.C.
The Supreme Court citing religious liberty, has lifted another of California's COVID restrictions, holding
the state may not prevent people from gathering in homes for Bible study and prayer meetings. The court issued a 5-4 order near midnight Friday barring the enforcement of a state restriction that was due to expire on Thursday.
The court's conservatives slammed the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals for what they called
another "erroneous" decision in favor of the state."This is the fifth time the court has summarily rejected the 9th Circuit's analysis of California's COVID restrictions on religious exercise," they said in Tandon vs. Newsom. In the most significant of the rulings, the court in early February said churches in California may open for indoor worship services, so long as they enforced limits on how many people gathered together.
Repeatedly in these cases,
judges in California and the justices in Washington have disagreed over how to compare, for example, people gathering in a restaurant or hair salon to people gathering for a worship service. The state has enforced stricter limits on indoor gatherings such as in theaters or churches where people sit together for an hour or more while allowing retail stores where people go in and out to remain open.
In the latest order, the conservative justices again noted that
the state has opened public businesses while restricting religious gatherings. And they said
the state regulators are violating the 1st Amendment's protection for the free exercise of religion "whenever they treat any comparable secular activity more favorably than religious exercise."
Comment: Has the Democrat machine had enough of Matt Gaetz, and is now employing one of the time-honored methods to take him down? How is he the target of a howling outrage mob when Hunter Biden's misdeeds are shrouded in media silence?