US Supreme Court Appears To Block California Restrictions On Worship

Thanks to a visitor, via Lifesite News:

the U.S. Supreme Court tossed out a California order banning all in-person worship and granted Harvest Rock Church an opportunity to present evidence prior to the country’s top court making a judgement on the matter. [Note: the California order bans indoor worship, not in-person worship.]

“The application for injunctive relief, presented to Justice Kagan and by her referred to the Court, is treated as a petition for a writ of certiorari before judgment, and the petition is granted,” stated the Supreme Court’s Dec. 3 order.

The Supreme Court “vacated” the lower court order against the California Christian churches were California Governor Gavin Newsom’s worship ban was upheld, stripping it of its effects.

. . . The Supreme Court in its order today sent the case back down to the lower court, telling it to consider its ruling in light of the Court’s Nov. 26 ruling against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s restrictions on places of worship. In that case, it blocked the governor from enforcing the limits against religious buildings and places of worship.

Via Reuters,

The justices, with no noted dissents, set aside a lower court ruling that rejected a challenge to Newsom’s policy by Harvest Rock Church Inc, which has several campuses in the state, and Harvest International Ministries Inc, an association of churches. Both are based in Pasadena, a city in Los Angeles County.

Prof Wiliam Jacobson remarks,

There were no dissents from the Order, reflecting that the fight has been won by the 5-4 majority in the Diocese of Brooklyn case.

Via USA Today:

The Supreme Court ordered California judges Thursday to follow its lead in blocking stringent coronavirus restrictions on houses of worship, as the high court did in a New York case last week.

The justices' unsigned order sending a California church's challenge back to lower courts likely will stop Gov. Gavin Newsom from prohibiting most indoor religious services.

Exactly how this will affect actual worship plans by churches in most parts of the state isn't completely clear. Certainly the three Los Angeles area megachurches that have defied Newsom's order up to now will continue, such as Grace Comminity Church in the photo above, with a much diminished threat posed by their ongoing legal cases.

I assume, though, that other churches, including Roman Catholic dioceses, will need to plan more fully how to resume indoor worship. I would expect they would continue, at least for the time being, to require masks and social distancing indoors, as well as to provide an outdoor seating option for communicants who wish to continue that way. I'll be covering this with great interest.

However, with the advent of cooler weather in the state, a resumption of indoor worship comes at a providential time.