Supreme Court Sides with Colorado Church Challenging Restrictions on Religious Freedom
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered a federal court to reexamine Colorado’s coronavirus restrictions on indoor religious services.
In an unsigned decision, the court threw out a federal district court’s ruling that had rejected High Plains Harvest Church’s challenge to the state’s restrictions on worship, according to the Star Tribune.
The decision comes after the Supreme Court ruled against Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s restrictions on houses of worship.
The justices also tossed out an order from a California court that had upheld Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s religious restrictions.
Three of the dissenting liberal justices argued that the case was moot, noting that Colorado had removed capacity limits on worship services in response to the Supreme Court’s recent decisions.
“High Plains Harvest Church has sought to enjoin Colorado’s capacity limits on worship services,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote in her dissent, joined by Justices Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor. “But Colorado has lifted all those limits.”
Several religious freedom cases have come before the Supreme Court this year amid nationwide lockdown measures.
Washington, D.C., Archbishop Wilton Gregory filed a lawsuit as recently as Friday evening against Mayor Muriel Bowser accusing the Democrat of imposing “arbitrary” and “discriminatory” restrictions on churches.
“Under both the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the District’s arbitrary, unscientific, and discriminatory treatment of religious worship is illegal,” the lawsuit said.
“Houses of worship and religious services provide so much more than just a weekly meeting place — they are where so many Americans find strength, community, and meaning,” Caleb Lyman, director of research for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, told the Daily Caller News Foundation on Wednesday.
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A version of this article appeared on the Daily Caller News Foundation website.
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