Supreme Court sides with Colorado church over COVID attendance caps
Washington — The Supreme Court on Tuesday sided with a Colorado church challenging the state's capacity restrictions on houses of worship during the coronavirus pandemic, the latest order from the high court, now with a 6-3 conservative majority, in favor of churches and synagogues seeking to hold worship services during the ongoing crisis.
In an order with three dissents, the high court tossed out an August decision from the federal district court in Colorado that kept the attendance limits in place and sent the dispute back to the lower courts for further consideration in light of its November order barring New York from enforcing capacity restrictions at houses of worship.
In that case, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of churches and synagogues that argued New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's limitations on attendance at religious institutions in coronavirus hotspots were unconstitutional.
Justice Elena Kagan, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer dissented in the Colorado case, writing it is moot because Colorado lifted the attendance limits in response to the Supreme Court's ruling in the challenge to New York's coronavirus restrictions.
"Absent our issuing different guidance, there is no reason to think Colorado will reverse course — and so no reason to think Harvest Church will again face capacity limits," Kagan wrote. "When 'subsequent events' thus show that a challenged action cannot 'reasonably be expected to recur,' a case is well and truly over. "
In a similar case involving New Jersey's limits on attendance at houses of worship, the Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the lower courts to revisit the dispute in light of its decision blocking the restrictions in the New York case.
The dispute over the capacity restrictions was brought by High Plains Harvest Church, a church in Ault, Colorado, and its pastor, Mark Hotaling. Colorado capped attendance at houses of worship to 25% of their posted occupancy limit, not to exceed 50 people, in specific geographic zones as part of its efforts to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. But the church argued the limitations violated the First Amendment and claimed the state was discriminating against religious gatherings in favor of secular gatherings.
But the federal district court in August and the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in November declined to block enforcement of the capacity restrictions.
In its filing with the Supreme Court asking it to lift the cap, High Plains Harvest Church said "it is difficult to imagine more blatantly unconstitutional discrimination against religious gatherings in favor of secular gatherings."
"Applicants feel as though they have stepped through the looking glass into a world where the right to shop for gardening supplies is a favored activity, while meeting as a body to worship God corporately has been relegated to the category of unnecessary of even superfluous," lawyers for the church wrote in their request.
But the state told the court it amended the public health order setting the restrictions to remove attendance limits from all houses of worship in response to the Supreme Court's recent decisions in similar disputes.
"All houses of worship remain categorized as critical businesses in Colorado, they now have no more restrictions than any other critical business in the state, and, indeed, have the maximum degree of flexibility permitted to any organization under Colorado public health law. As such, High Plains already has the relief it seeks," they said.