Thread by @stevenmazie

There are still two religious liberty challenges to COVID regs pending at SCOTUS: one from a church in California and one from Christian & Jewish clergy teaming up in New Jersey.

This afternoon, California responded to the Harvest Rock Church's emergency application. (1/x)

Here's the state's full response. drive.google.com/file/d/1mGxZsS…

CA lays out a few important bits of science re: gathering venues that Justice Gorsuch seemed to ignore in his testy concurrence last week in the New York cases: the (1) number of people, (2) nature of activity and (3) location all matter to spread. Gorsuch seemed to ignore (2).

The brief goes on to lay out why California's public-health regulations keep open retail stores and malls, limit gatherings in places like theaters and houses of worship and ban some (concerts, plays) entirely.

Smartly, the brief begins its argument by acknowledging the church's legitimate and profound interests and mentioning last week's orders in favor of New York synagogues and churches.

But then California strives to distinguish its regulations from New York's, explaining that limits on houses of worship apply equally to comparable secular venues.

More on that theme...

And a citation to Justice Kavanaugh's concurrence last week on why the Court should defer to science-based policy implemented by local authorities

Church services aren't like grocery shopping, where contact is relatively brief and you aren't singing in fellow shoppers' faces.

And services aren't like getting your haircut, which is intimate but one-on-one rather than congregational

Camping? That's an outdoor activity, bub

Plenty of evidence that services can super-spreader events

And the church bringing this application has *not* been well-behaved. It has flouted public-health measures for months.

In sum, this is a well argued brief with smart citations that I imagine could flip at least Kavanaugh's vote from last week's NY orders to secure a 5-4 decision upholding the state's restrictions against the church's challenge. We'll see: the church still has a reply to write.

Also, there’s this.