Another Free-Exercise Petition Goes To The Supreme Court

On Nov 23, the Thomas More Society announced that it had filed a petition for Writ of Certiorari with the US Supreme Court on behalf of South Bay United Pentecostal Church in San Diego. This is essentially a renewal of a petition for certiorari that the court deniedd in a 5-4 vote last May.

The announcement quotes special counsel Charles LiMandri, “Governor Newsom, in revising his reopening restrictions under his new California ‘Blueprint’ framework, has not only continued his disparate treatment of places of worship but has exacerbated the discrimination by targeting a core practice of South Bay’s religious expression – the ability to raise one’s voice to worship God in song." This has been a concern I've had since the start of lockdowns, that government assumes the ability not just to limit or prohibit attendance at religious services, but to regulate liturgical practice.

Choral singing, chanting, congregational responses, use of pew hymnals and missals, and processions have all been effectively banned, with no justification. Singing was banned universally due to anecdotal evidence from a single Mt Vernon, WA choir practice, when plain evidence from the Southern California megachurches that have not implemented COVID restrictions and continue to sing is that, even without masks, normal liturgical practice does not spread the disease.

The Nov 25 decision by the Supreme Court staying Gov Cuomo's esecutive orders indicates that the court will tend to strike down disparate treatment, especially in cases where any specific attendance limits are imposed on churches and synagogues, but no equivalent limits are placed on "essential" businesses. The Thomas More suit notes that Newsom's color-coded controls have no provision for returning to full liberty and only permit 50% church capacity at the lowest risk tier.

(In the Roman Catholic Diocese of Los Angeles, it appears that the diocese at least is no longer imposing numerical limits on outdoor mass attendance, although singing and other liturgical practices continue not to be used. Indoor masses are still prohibited. This is an indication of the vague and arbitrary nature of such controls.)

It interests me that, as flights delivering COVID vaccine begin, health departments have been making no announcements of how they plan to implement vaccinations, or how they may affect COVID restrictions going forward. It seems clear that authorities will be slow and very reluctant to relax controls, no matter the effectiveness of vaccines.

This is going to be a long and difficult fight. It's nevertheless encouraging that political authorities are forced to recognize that the population will not be docile going forward.