Thread by @stevenmazie

BREAKING: A splintered Supreme Court grants *partial* relief to churches in California challenging COVID public-health orders limiting prayer attendance, but requests to lift percentage capacity restrictions and permit indoor singing are denied.

This is a wild division:

- Thomas and Gorsuch would give the churches everything they want, including indoor singing.
- Alito would go nearly that far
- Kavanaugh, Barrett and Roberts would not allow singing, for now
- Kagan, Breyer and Sotomayor would not grant any relief

Kagan in the first line of her dissent decrying SCOTUS's micromanaging of states' response to the pandemic:

"Justices of this Court are not scientists."

She then cites California's public-health expert on the risk of spreading COVID at indoor services:

...and explains the scientists' view of why indoor worship is not comparable to shopping in terms of risk

California is "desperately trying to slow the spread of a deadly disease."

Strong stuff from a typically understated Kagan. She speculates that perhaps the majority "does not believe in science."

She is mad.

And gets angrier. The majority's "foray into armchair epidemiology cannot end well."

Everyone needs to read this final paragraph of Justice Kagan's dissent.

Whatever the merits of the Court's "this is OK, this is not" approach, it's bound to lead to uncertainty as to what the 1st am prohibits & permits as states continue to strive to "keep communities safe."

And zoom in on the closing: the Court's own closure to prevent the spread of COVID contrasts unsettlingly with its unwillingness to let states take the actions they deem necessary to confront the pandemic.

Yet she manages to dissent "respectfully", as the justices usually do even when they vehemently disagree with the majority.

One can almost feel the invisible scare quotes around "respectfully" in this dissent.

Link to the order: supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf…

And here is the link to the companion order regarding the other CA church supremecourt.gov/orders/courtor…

Gorsuch's statement, joined by Alito and Thomas, is built on the premise that California is out to get religious people, not out to prevent the spread of COVID.

Chief Justice Roberts, as usual, has the most succinct statement: it's unreasonable to ban *all* indoor worship but reasonable to put limits on capacity and to bar indoor singing.

Justice Alito stakes out a sliver of ground just to the left of Gorsuch & Thomas but to the right of Kavanaugh, Roberts & Barrett: he'd permit CA to impose restrictions for 30 days—an allowance that would end unless CA could show that the restrictions are absolutely necessary.