We Can’t Roll the Dice on Religious Liberty: Nevada, the Supreme Court, and Churches

Religious liberty still matters in the midst of this pandemic.

The Supreme Court has chosen in a 5-4 ruling not to grant injunctive relief to churches in Nevada in light of the state’s arguably inconsistent Covid-19 guidelines. In doing so, the Supreme Court let stand what is wrong: churches are being treated differently than similar gatherings. Multiple justices in the minority wrote dissents, and those help us to see the issues in play.

Justice Neil Gorsuch explained in his dissent, using the important example of a movie theater:

This is a simple case. Under the Governor’s edict, a 10-screen “multiplex” may host 500 moviegoers at any time. A casino, too, may cater to hundreds at once, with perhaps sic people huddled at craps table here and a similar number gather around every roulette wheel there. Large numbers and close quarters are fine in such places. But, churches, synagogues, and mosques are banned from admitting 50 worshippers—no matter how large the building, how distant the individuals, how many wear masks, no matter the precautions at all.

Gorsuch gets it.

As I (and many others) have consistently said, that’s a line that churches cannot accept. Other states have consistently applied the rules. Around the country, a theater is treated as a church and a church as a theater.

The SCOTUS Blog put it quite forthrightly:

A divided Supreme Court on Friday night turned down a request by a Nevada church for permission to hold services on the same terms that other facilities in the state, including casinos, are allowed to hold gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The key argument was:

The church stressed that it is willing to comply with rules regarding masks and social distancing (both of which were largely absent from a photo included in the church’s ...