COVID and the courts is the general topic for two of this week's three stories in The 3, with the U.S. Supreme Court's decision from last week against the Governor of New York's restrictions being deemed unconstitutional now having implications in a case out of California. Plus, Kentucky's governor is trying to force religious K-12 schools in the state to close due to COVID. And, a Michigan funeral home has agreed to pay a quarter of a million dollars to the estate of a former transgender employee which it terminated.
Supreme Court gets involved in CA COVID restrictions
The recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to override restrictions on religious activity in New York state due to COVID has had implications in California, as Liberty Counsel reports that the high court has agreed to hear the case of two California churches; it also "vacated the lower court orders involving the emergency petition of the churches, and directed the district court to reconsider in light of the High Court’s decision in granting an injunction for churches and synagogues in New York."
The Christian legal organization announced on Friday that, "...Harvest Rock Church and Harvest International Ministry filed a renewed motion for temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to the federal district court of California regarding Governor Gavin Newsom’s unconstitutional orders..." and pointed out that:
Though both the district court and the Ninth Circuit have previously denied the churches’ requests for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, and for injunctions pending appeal, the Supreme Court has now vacated all of those previous denials and instructed this court to reconsider its previous rulings in light of the High Court’s decision on behalf of New York City synagogues and Roman Catholic churches in Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo and Agudath Israel v. Cuomo.
The "Cuomo" referred to is New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who was on the losing end of the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision, in which the Court, according to Liberty Counsel, "ruled that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s 'very severe' limitations on church attendance in the state’s COVID red and orange zones violate the First Amendment right to free exercise of religion and are not the least restrictive means of preventing infections. The organization points out, "However, the restrictions against places of worship in California are more severe than those in New York. Governor Gavin Newsom’s orders ban ALL in-person worship for 99.1 percent of Californians."
KY governor attempts to close K-12 religious schools in the state
Meanwhile, the Governor of Kentucky, Andy Beshear, is attempting to shutter private religious schools it the state under his COVID regulations. First Liberty reports that Beshear had issued an "executive order prohibiting private religious schools from holding in-person classes for grades K-12."
The organization's website says that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, also of Kentucky, led 38 U.S. Senators who filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the U.S. Supreme Court "supporting an application urging the Justices to reverse a lower court ruling that upheld" the governor's order.
Here is the timeline of what has transpired in the case, from First Liberty's website on November 30:
On November 18, 2020, Governor Andrew Beshear ordered all “public and private elementary, middle, and high schools,” including religious schools, to cease in-person instruction, while allowing other activities with comparable health risks such as theaters, weddings, bowling alleys, and offices, to remain in-person with restrictions. Pre-schools, universities, and colleges are also permitted to hold in-person instruction. On November 25, the district court granted a preliminary injunction prohibiting the Governor “from enforcing the prohibition on in-person instruction with respect to any religious private school in Kentucky that adheres to applicable social distancing and hygiene guidelines.” Over the weekend, a panel of the Sixth Circuit stayed the district court’s injunction, allowing the Governor’s order to take effect.
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, along with First Liberty, asked the high court to "vacate" the Sixth Circuit's action, supported by those 38 senators.
Funeral home in Michigan settles with estate of former transgender employee
The U.S. Supreme Court decision in what is known as the Bostock case, in which the justices issued a 6-3 ruling in favor of three transgender employees at three different companies who claimed they had been terminated because of their "sexual orientation," according to The Christian Post, has proven to be costly for one of the defendants, the R.G. and G.R. Harris Funeral Homes.
The Post reports that the funeral home company, which is located in Michigan, "has agreed to pay $250,000, as part of a legal settlement, to the estate of trans-identified individual that the company fired." The article says that Harris had fired Anthony Stephens, a biological male who began to identify as "Aimee", "who began dressing as a woman and underwent gender transition to become Aimee. The funeral home had cited their religious objections to transgender ideology as justification for the termination."
The Christian Post stated, regarding the court case: "Justice Neil Gorsuch authored the majority opinion, concluding that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does apply to sexual orientation and gender identity, even though neither category is specifically mentioned by the law or that Congress had originally intended for that interpretation." Peter Sprigg of Family Research Council said, "We are disappointed the Supreme Court chose to radically re-write the statute by expanding its meaning to cover 'gender identity' and 'sexual orientation'..."
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