The Metastasizing COVID Legal Morass

I've been following the Harvest Rock Church's case in Pasadena, CA since its inception last spring. As I covered here a month ago , the US Supreme Court sent the case back to the Ninth Circuit for reevaluation in light of its Diocese of Brooklyn action, which essentially signaled that it would find restrictions on attendance specifically tailored to churces a violation of the free exercise clause of the US Constitution. However, this didn't decide anything, it just kicked the issue back to the district court. The consensus at the time was that Harvest Rock's attorneys would need to relitigate the whole issue back up from the trial court to the Ninth Circuit, and that's what's been happening. As of late last week, Harvest Rock and the state have been filing new briefs with the Ninth Circuit. The court has been asking interesting questions. As outlined here, The Court of Appeals requested supplemental briefing by the parties to address whether (1) the LA ...