[ May 13, 2024 ]
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts joined liberal justices in the majority.
John Roberts is a disgrace.
Supreme Court Rejects Church Challenge to California’s Limits on In-Person Services During the Pandemic
The late-night, 5-4 decision allows the state to enforce some restrictions on religious gatherings
Story continues below advertisementSupreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts joined liberal justices in the majority.
WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision rejected a California church’s request to set aside public-health orders capping attendance at services, issuing opinions shortly before midnight Friday.
The decision revealed sharp differences between Chief Justice John Roberts, who joined liberal justices in the majority, and other conservatives over the response to Covid-19.
The South Bay United Pentecostal Church, in Chula Vista, Calif., contended that the caps, to 25% of capacity or a maximum of 100 persons, discriminate against religion because some secular businesses, such as supermarkets, factories and restaurants, weren’t held to similar limits. With many Christian clergy determined to hold Pentecost services on Sunday, the church’s brief warned that enforcing such public-health orders held the “potential for widespread civil unrest.” The brief quoted President Trump’s statement last week that “I will override the governors” if they fail to lift limits on in-person religious services.
State and county officials countered that their orders placed fewer restrictions on in-person religious services than other mass-audience activities, such as concerts, sporting events and theatrical performances, which currently may not be held at all. “Labor in manufacturing facilities, warehouses, and offices does not typically involve large numbers of people singing or reading aloud together in the same place, in close proximity to one another, for an extended duration,” the state’s brief said, “which increases the danger that infected individuals will project respiratory droplets that contain the virus.”
Lower courts rejected the church’s challenge to the public-health orders, and in an opinion issued alongside the midnight order, Chief Justice Roberts appeared incredulous that the charge of religious discrimination could be entertained.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order “aims to limit the spread of Covid-19, a novel severe acute respiratory illness that has killed thousands of people in California and more than 100,000 nationwide. At this time, there is no known cure, no effective treatment, and no vaccine,” Chief Justice Roberts wrote, noting that asymptomatic carriers “may unwittingly infect others.”
While churches faced fewer restrictions than other gatherings, the order “exempts or treats more leniently only dissimilar activities, such as operating grocery stores, banks, and laundromats, in which people neither congregate in large groups nor remain in close proximity for extended periods,” the chief justice wrote.
“The precise question of when restrictions on particular social activities should be lifted during the pandemic is a dynamic and fact-intensive matter subject to reasonable disagreement,” he wrote, but the Constitution principally assigns such judgments “to the politically accountable officials of the States.”
Absent clear infringement of constitutional rights, state officials “should not be subject to second-guessing by an ‘unelected federal judiciary,’ which lacks the background, competence, and expertise to assess public health and is not accountable to the people,” he wrote.
In the California case, “the notion that it is ‘indisputably clear’ that the Government’s limitations are unconstitutional seems quite improbable,” he wrote.
Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joined him in the majority, but issued no statements.
Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh dissented.
Justice Kavanaugh, joined by Justices Thomas and Gorsuch, issued an opinion rejecting California’s distinction between in-person religious services and retail businesses.
“California undoubtedly has a compelling interest in combating the spread of Covid-19 and protecting the health of its citizens,” he wrote, but it failed to justify the attendance limits for in-person religious services when a “litany of other secular businesses…are not subject to an occupancy cap.”
“Assuming all of the same precautions are taken, why can someone safely walk down a grocery store aisle but not a pew? And why can someone safely interact with a brave deliverywoman but not with a stoic minister?” he wrote. Unless the state imposed the same occupancy limits across the board, Justice Kavanaugh argued, the public-health order violated the First Amendment right to free exercise of religion.
Otherwise, he said, “the Church would suffer irreparable harm from not being able to hold services on Pentecost Sunday in a way that comparable secular businesses and persons can conduct their activities.”
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49 Comments
3 years ago
Fear not. Take this to God in prayer. We are free and answer to a higher authority. And jury nullification trumps the SCOTUS.
3 years ago
Reply to
[email protected]
There pathetically flawed Supreme Court Justices have NO INFLUENCE on my beliefs. They can rule over the sheeple. It’s best to answer to a higher Authority.
3 years ago
They’re blackmailing Justice roberts.
3 years ago
Reply to
Thomas Faddis
It doesn’t matter. Roberts HAS FREE WILL, which means, HE HAS A CHOICE and he chose to side with the pathetic liberals and THAT IS ON HIM. GOD WILL REPAY.
3 years ago
JOHN ROBERTS:
A PATHETIC UNRIGHTEOUS HUMAN BEING.
May GOD have mercy on his dark soul.
3 years ago
John Roberts has made his pact with Satan.
3 years ago
Reply to
Andrew
It says something that Kavanaugh, in his dissent, has stayed the course on this, after what they tried to do to him. Gorsuch too. (Notice I’m ONLY mentioning those who were nominated and confirmed during Trump’s Presidency – so far we’ve no worries on Justices Thomas or Alito.) Imagine if Hillary had been President when such SCOTUS vacancies took place. We’d’ve had more Sotomayors, Kagans and Ginsburgs and that California church would have been REALLY screwed. (So would have Jack Phillips, but that’s another issue.)
3 years ago
There must be pictures of him with Epstein’s flock
3 years ago
Roberts has been compromised (owned) by the Deep State since (at least) the Obama Care ruling. .
John Roberts may have done an illegal adoption of his kids from Ireland, the Deep State have owned him since they discovered that.
3 years ago
Reply to
taxpayer22
Obviously the Left and the Deep State have something on him, to have such power and control over him.
I wouldn’t put it past this cabal to take down Bill Cosby in the way they did, in retaliation for his 2004 “pound cake” speech – doing exactly as they’d done with other Blacks who’ve “wandered off the plantation” in order to totally kneecap them. (Herman Cain can attest to this, I’m sure.)
3 years ago
Reply to
Patriotic American
The media and other lefties knew that Cosby was drugging and raping women for decades.
Cosby got a pass until he departed the leftie , progressive plantation with his pound cake speech.
White Democrats get really upset if their Blacks try to escape the slave plantation.
3 years ago
Reply to
taxpayer22
Bingo! This is why none of the major players involved in Obamagate will go to prison…
Obama had Brennan spy on and obtain blackmail on anyone who could expose their crimes, sedition and corruption.
In 2014, even The New York Times was compelled to report that Brennan had hacked into the computers of the members on the Senate Intelligence Committee… Brennan lied and vigorously denied it until he was confronted with the evidence showing he had. Only then did he offer a fake apology.
Brennan incurred absolutely zero punishment for his treason because those senators are afraid of any compromising information he might have obtained on each of them as a result of his illegal spy gathering mission.
It is also why Justices Roberts voted in favor of Obama Care… They hacked his computer as well and blackmailed him over the legality of his adopted son. –Big League Politics
They also hacked the computers of reporters Sharyl Attkisson and James Rosen… Anyone who might expose their crimes and corruption…
And if they don’t have blackmail on a particular person who might expose them, they will just make it up just like they did with General Flynn…
Flynn was supposed to be the example they set up to show that if You cross them, they will bankrupt you and destroy your reputation”.
“Six ways to Sunday…”
We just also learned that John Brennan suppressed Intel saying Russia actually wanted Hillary Clinton to Win, not Trump– Fox News
John Brennan
Obama’s CIA Director, voted for the Communist (CPUSA) Presidential candidate Gus Hall in 1976 during the Cold War. Brennan told an audience that he voted for the Communist Party presidential candidate not because he was young and stupid, but because he was “unhappy with the system” and saw the “need for change”… “Hope and Change” ring a bell? Gus Hall was a Four-time CPUSA presidential candidate and U.S. Communist Party boss. He did time in Leavenworth for ‘Conspiring and Teaching the Overthrow of the U.S. Government by Force or Violence. Sounds a lot like Antifa… John Brennan is a Communist subversive. President Trump ordered Brennan’s security clearance be revoked, however, Deep State bureaucrats continue to ignore Trump’s order.
3 years ago
Reply to
Dem-Smasher
You can’t fire or impeach Supreme Court “Justices”, so I doubt they have anything over him that would matter. They are there for life. Roberts was always a lefty leaner. When RINOs select a candidate, you can be sure they picked a Fifty Columnist.
3 years ago
Reply to
Jim
Who said anything about firing him?
They can take his son away or possibly throw Roberts in jail for fraud if the adoption of his son wasn’t legal.
3 years ago
Reply to
Jim
I believe a SCJ can be removed if found guilty of a real crime, just not for his rulings.
3 years ago
Reply to
taxpayer22
I am convinced Roberts is also a closet homosexual. I posted a brief background on him and how his relationship with the Bush’s. Between a suspected illegal adoption of his two kids from Ireland and being a pro bono gay rights ADVOCATE, he is compromised. He’s married and for whatever reason may not want to come out as a bisexual or a homosexual. Kagan and Sotomayor are both lesbains.
1986 – 1989 Roberts entered private law practice in Washington, D.C., as an associate at the law firm Hogan & Hartson (now Hogan Lovells), worked in the field of corporate law. As part of Hogan & Hartson’s pro bono practice, he worked behind the scenes for gay rights advocates, reviewing filings and preparing arguments for the 1996 Supreme Court case Romer v. Evans, which was described in 2005 as “the movement’s most important legal victory”. (totally for same sex marriage)
A Supreme Court mystery: Has Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. embraced the court’s same-sex marriage decision that he so passionately protested two years ago?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/a-supreme-court-mystery-has-roberts-embraced-same-sex-marriage-ruling/2017/07/16/33cd522a-68d1-11e7-8eb5-cbccc2e7bfbf_story.html
3 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
Thanks for the info. It certainly sounds like a creditable answer to the mystery of John Roberts
3 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
Another brick in the wall of the judgment of God against the United States.
June 26, 2015 and gay marriage. The day America died, according to one evangelical leader. According to this watchman, it is the day America crossed its point of no return.
Judgment will increase against America, and this nation will not be able to assist Israel by the time of the Gog-Magog invasion in Ezekiel 38. America will either be third world of out of business – totally and totalitarianly … God is not mocked.
3 years ago
this is the work of satan. it is impossible to interpret the 1st amendment this way unless you are evil. words no longer mean anything, the deep state is just making shiite up as they go
3 years ago
need to defy this, do not comply
3 years ago
The Dems/Libs/Left,Global hive mind called “the Collective”, AKA the Democratic Party.
THE BORG
The FEW that co-opt the Weak,Lost,Cowards, Unethical, the Fragmented Social Misfits.
Why,as I realize this is a fictional analogy,I get the Distinct feeling,that these People(?) claim it
as a reality.
These PPL(?),have to be stopped
THEY are not only Hateful, they are Hatefully Insane.
as for me,..Patrick Henry, comes to mind.
3 years ago
the new Plessy vs. Ferguson.
3 years ago
The much vaunted “Seperation of Church” means nothing to 5 Supreme Court “Justices”. No surprise here. This is what you get with Leftys.
3 years ago
Reply to
Jim
This ruling is total BS but there is no such thing as “separation of church.”. The Constitution only states that Congress shall not make no law respecting an establishment of religion. But this ruling violates the 1st by preventing the people from practicing their religion and peacefully assembling. We will never see anything about the criminals that assemble and destroy public and private property though. The Constitution has been nothing but a piece of paper since the ubumer years.
3 years ago
Another unConstitutional ruling.
An earlier one was Roe vs Wade.
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3 years ago
Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr., Neil M. Gorsuch, and Brett M. Kavanaugh voted against it.
In his dissent, Kavanaugh argued that “comparable secular businesses” such as supermarkets, stores, hair salons, and marijuana dispensaries were not subject to the same restrictions as churches.
…
“The church and its congregants simply want to be treated equally to comparable secular businesses,” Kavanaugh wrote. “California already trusts its residents and any number of businesses to adhere to proper social distancing and hygiene practices.”
The case was brought to the Supreme Court by the South Bay United Pentecostal Church in Chula Vista, Ca
…
President Trump last week demanded that all religious services be considered “essential services” during the coronavirus pandemic, just as liquor stores and grocery stores are.
…
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/05/29/chief-justice-john-roberts-sides-with-liberal-justices-as-supreme-court-rules-in-favor-of-restrictions-on-religious-services/
Roberts was put on the bench by establishment globalist GWB in 2005 and both HATE Trump! Someone has something on Roberts. He knows better than this. Roberts in particular is doing all possible to make Trump impotent.
3 years ago
He’s the swing vote. He knows better than to rule like this.
Who knew H.W. Bush and GWB were closet LBGTQ+ advocates? I strongly suspect that Justice Roberts is also a homosexual. He appears to be coming out more and more as this has become more acceptable. They tell advocate one thing in public and in private do the opposite. H.W.Bush, GWB and Justice Roberts all hate Trump too! he swamp sticks together when it comes to Trump! Look at a bried history of the Bush’s and Roberts.
Justice Roberts –
Education:
1960 – 1968 Notre Dame Catholic Elementary School
1969-1973 graduated from La Lumiere School,
* small affluent academically rigorous Roman Catholic boarding school in La Porte, Indiana
* Captain of the footbal team
* Regional champion in wrestling,
* Participated in choir and drama
* Co-edited the school newspaper
* Served on the athletic council and executive committee of the student council.
* Roberts graduated first in his class
* First student in school history to go to Harvard
1976 graduated from Harvard University majoring in History
* A.B. summa cum laude and membership in Phi Beta Kappa
1979 graduated from Harvard Law School
* J.D. magna cum laude
1986 – 1989 Roberts entered private law practice in Washington, D.C., as an associate at the law firm Hogan & Hartson (now Hogan Lovells), worked in the field of corporate law. As part of Hogan & Hartson’s pro bono practice, he worked behind the scenes for gay rights advocates, reviewing filings and preparing arguments for the 1996 Supreme Court case Romer v. Evans, which was described in 2005 as “the movement’s most important legal victory”. (totally for same sex marriage)
1989 – 1992 Roberts served President George H. W. Bush as Principal Deputy Solicitor General
1990 – wrote brief stating Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided and should be overturned
Co-authored brief arguing in favor of clergy-led prayer at public school graduations.
1992 Bush nominated Roberts to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit,
No Senate vote held for confirmation, nomination expired
1993 Bush defeated and returned to returned to Hogan & Hartson as a partner
1996 Married Jane Sullivan and later adopted two children from Ireland
2003 – President George W. Bush nominated Roberts for a position on the U.S. Court of Appeals. and confirmed
2005 – present President George Bush nominated Roberts to the U.S. Supreme Court as Chief Justice to replace deceased Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and confirmed by voice vote.
2013 George H.W. Bush first ex President to serve as a witness a same sex marriage
In public was against it.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/george-hw-bush-gay-wedding_n_3991292
2013 George W. Bush offered to perform the ceremony but had a scheduling conflict Just nine years before that ceremony, opposition to same-sex marriage was a central part of Bush’s reelection strategy. https://reason.com/2015/05/26/that-time-george-w-bush-offered-to-offic/
https://reason.com/2015/05/26/that-time-george-w-bush-offered-to-offic/
Other information from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Roberts#LGBT_rights
3 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
Wow! John Roberts whole life is a lie. And let us not ever forget we got both Bushies because the people voted for the lesser of two evils. I was very active in the party until I came to understand the GOP will not support conservatives. The only reason we have Trump is he was rich enough to fund his own campaign.
3 years ago
Why is it that only muslim’s rights are protected when dealing with a religion even though islam is a doctrine? And what LAW does the SCOTUS site that supports this BS? Time to get the libturds out of our leadership and courts!
3 years ago
Roberts is afraid of being the next Anthony Scalia.
3 years ago
THIS IS THE DAY THAT OUR OWN SUPREME COURT RULED THAT THE LAW OF THE LAND, OUR CONSTITUTION AND BILL OF RIGHTS ARE NOW AND FOREVER MORE NULL AND VOID. THANK YOU JUSTICE ROBERTS FOR POUNDING ANOTHER NAIL INTO OUR REPUBLICS COFFIN . WITH THE SUPREME COURT NOW ON THE SIDE OF TYRANNICAL DEMOCRAT GOVERNORS AND MAYORS WE WILL HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO FIGHT BACK WITH EVERYTHING AT OUR DISPOSAL FROM VOTING TO OUTRIGHT REVOLUTION OR CIVIL WAR TO SAVE THE REPUBLIC. GOD BLESS OUR NATION AND IT’S PEOPLE AND MAY ALL THOSE WHO SEEK OUR DESTRUCTION BURN IN HELL.
3 years ago
I hope they are enforcing the laws about large gatherings during the riots. They certainly don’t seem to be enforcing the laws against arson and vandalism.
3 years ago
Freedom of religion in America was official killed on Friday , it’s always on a Friday see the gospel accounts of Good Friday for the details.
3 years ago
Reply to
Andrew
Just as in the cases of the second amendment giving states the right to limits rounds in magazines. Over time 1 round will be the law in NY. Government will limit church attendance to Friday 6-6:30 AM and upheld by Roberts.
3 years ago
To set a fox to keep the geese…
That’s Johnny
3 years ago
Not hard to see which justices on the supreme court serve Satan.
3 years ago
I’ll “render unto Ceasar what is Ceasar’s”; but, I will NOT disobey God to please knee knockers and the collective.
“As for me and my house, We will serve the Lord”.
Open up churches, synagogues, temples, mosques, etc. The plandemic has gone far enough!
3 years ago
I’m thinking that the “brain aneurysm” Roberts had is remotely controlled and he knows it.
3 years ago
You have the right to free speech…. but… leave it up to local officials to determine what is appropriate during the fake Covid-19 pandemic. Roberts is a not determining intent of the US Constitution , he is intent on just stopping Trump from properly interpreting the US Constitution. Roberts re- wrote Obamacare and made Obamacare his own law. WTF.
3 years ago
It’s now been proven beyond any possible doubt: John Roberts has NEVER bothered to read the Constitution. He must have skipped 8th grade Civics.
Worst. Supreme. Court. Justice. Ever.
.
3 years ago
OR is this where the whore is hated by the beast? The whore taught all these years that Romans 13 meant for us to obey Govt. when it didn’t say that at all. The word power in Romans 13 was translated from Exousia and means liberty not power. Power in the list of words that Exousia could mean is like 4 or 5 down Liberty is the first.
exousia
1) power of choice, liberty of doing as one pleases
1a) leave or permission
3 years ago
either way the first is gone!
3 years ago
1st is gone time for the second?
