Governor Cuomo and Supreme Court
On 25 November, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down an opinion that pitted government attempts at containing COVID-19 against the First Amendment.
The court said, among other things: “…….while the pandemic poses many grave challenges, there is no world in which the Constitution tolerates color-coded executive edits that reopen liquor stores and bike shops but shutter churches, synagogues and mosques.”
WHO
l Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, New York
l Agudath Israel of America
These two religious organizations are the applicants. They went to the Court to seek temporary relief from Governor Cuomo’s ‘color-coded’ classification of the city, that would limit the number of people in churches and synagogues.
In order to contain the pandemic, most cities are divided into red, orange and yellow zones. The applicants maintained that the following classifications were discriminatory and are against the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. Governor Cuomo’s Executive Order said:
Red zones: there should not be more than 10 people during a religious service.
Orange zones: there should not be more than 25 people
Discriminatory. They maintained that essential and non essential businesses in New York, like grocery stores, bike stores, pet stores and shops did not have these limits.
Such limits will result in ‘irreparable injury’ if only 10 people (red zone) or 25 in an orange zone were allowed inside churches or synagogues. How about others? Online worship is not an option for some worshipers. They want to take Mass in church or be in a synagogue on Shabbat.
The applicants wanted temporary injunctions against Governor Cuomo’s Executive Order. The Justices were not in agreement. Those that did not want to side with the churches and synagogues outlined the havoc the pandemic has unleashed on New York, but the Constitution won, with the 5-4 vote.
“Even if the Constitution has taken a holiday during the pandemic, it cannot become a sabbatical,” said one of the Justices, who voted for stopping New York’s Executive Order.
The constitutional right is the right to worship.
This is another ‘written podcast’ by Nonqaba waka Msimang.
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