The CA church asking SCOTUS for emergency relief to hold in-person services as the state struggles with a second COVID surge just filed its final brief. It's riddled with errors. Image
Brief opens by lamenting the "sea of purple" on the state's restrictions map Image
And complains that while houses of worship are entirely closed in purple areas, "food packing and processing, laundromats and warehouses" have no capacity restrictions.

As if those are comparable facilities with lengthy indoor gatherings. Of course, they are not.
Consider the list of venues in CA that are entirely closed to indoor gatherings in the most-restrictive zones:

- museums
- zoos
- aquariums
- movie theaters
- gyms and fitness centers
- restaurants
- wineries
- family recreation centers
- live audience sports
- houses of worship
Oh, and also: bars, breweries, and distilleries are entirely closed for indoor AND outdoor gatherings.

Does that sound like discrimination against religion and religious institutions to you?
Read California's guidelines here:

cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/D…
The sloppiness of the reasoning is matched by the spelling and grammar of the brief

With all briefs in, SCOTUS could rule on this application at any time. I expect they will before the weekend.

Here's my detailed look at the brief California filed yesterday.

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More from @stevenmazie

2 Dec
After re-reading Kavanaugh’s concurrence in Roman Catholic Diocese v. Cuomo, I see it’s going to take a re-evaluation on his part if the Court is to uphold public health measures in CA, NJ & KY. 1/10
While I would hope that Kav & others would be more hesitant to meddle with state-level measures as covid reaches crisis levels in those places and elsewhere, I’m not confident they will. 2/10
Kavanaugh is more measured than Gorsuch and acknowledges that even severe restrictions on church attendance could be justified — but says that as long as just *one* secular venue is open while churches are closed, the state is violating free exercise. 3/10 Image
Read 10 tweets
2 Dec
Today a GOP state senator in PA filed an emergency request at SCOTUS challenging the election results in his state. And now @tedcruz is urging the justices to hear the appeal.

It's an embarrassingly ludicrous argument.

democracydocket.com/wp-content/upl…
Gist of the claim: the PA state legislature violated the PA state constitution when, a *year* ago, it expanded mail-in voting.

And somehow *that* is a violation of the US Constitution.
The PA state supreme court tossed this by a 7-0 vote on Saturday mainly due to the "laches" doctrine, which says you can't wait to bring a lawsuit when the legal infirmity you identify was apparent so very long ago.

But the whole case has the logic of an MC Escher drawing. Image
Read 7 tweets
1 Dec
NEW at SCOTUS: another challenge to a public-health order. This one opposes Kentucky governor's closure of religious schools.

Context: ALL schools are closed in KY (incl public); plaintiffs say religious schools must be opened because venues like gyms & daycares are open. Image
Updating the tally, that makes three pending covid/religion cases at SCOTUS:

- California (all briefs in; court could rule any time)
- New Jersey (response from state due Th. 12/3)
- Kentucky (just filed)
Read 4 tweets
30 Nov
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) Image
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). ImageImageImage
Read 15 tweets
30 Nov
Jeff Wall begins arguing in Trump v. NY: "this case should be over" because the case is not ripe.
Wall: question is who counts as an "inhabitant". An immigrant stopped at the border, eg, cannot count.
CJ Roberts: is the Dec. 31st date still operative?

Wall: timing remains fluid; we are not on pace to send the census data by the deadline, but some of the data could be sent in January.
Read 54 tweets
26 Nov
BREAKING: Supreme Court votes 5-4 to grant Catholic Diocese and orthodox Jews' request to block Gov. Cuomo's attendance limits at houses of worship in New York.

Chief Justice Roberts joins the three liberal justices in dissent.
These votes mark the first marked impact of Justice Amy Coney Barrett on the Court and the country.

She joined her four conservative brethren in blocking the limits whereas Justice Ginsburg anchored 5-4 majorities the other way in the spring.
In dissent, CJ Roberts notes there is "no need" to grant relief to the religious organizations since the limits no longer apply. But he says if the limits return, they may well violate the Free Exercise Clause.
Read 21 tweets

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