The Supreme Court made a very important ruling on Friday. It turned down a request by a religious institution to call the California restrictions on the number of people that can assemble at a service unconstitutional.
It was a 5 to 4 ruling with Justice Roberts writing the opinion. The dissent was comprised of the four other conservatives spearheaded by Cavanaugh who said that the restrictions were discriminatory against religions.
This ruling is extremely important as it applies not only to this pandemic but to emergencies in general and pandemics in the Future. Roberts opinion was eloquently written and extremely direct. He intended it to apply to future similar situations and did not restrict it to the current situation only which was very important. He stated that the restrictions were consistent with the first amendment and that the court could not supplant the well reasoned and good faith efforts of a government based upon scientific and medical advice . The four conservatives we’re not allowed to remove the restrictions because of their own medical or scientific opinions.
The majority with Roberts strongly upheld the states right to try to control a pandemic and did not consider a religious gathering to be any different than a concert or other type of public gathering which was important In terms of separation of church and state and the rule of law add the protection of the public for those individuals who want to use religion to put other people at risk.
Roberts has proven over time to be a reasonable and will reasoned person in situations that involve serious issues of rule of law or upheaval of society.
5/30/2020 4:03 PM (edited)