GOP Senators Support Christian School’s Push for COVID-19 Exclusion



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More than three dozen Republicans in the Senate, including the majority leader Mitch mcconnellAddison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnell Biden Backs Coronavirus Stimulus Bill On Compromise 0B United States Records Over 14 Million Coronavirus Cases On The Money: COVID-19 Relief Gets Bigger As McConnell and Pelosi discuss | Slowing job growth raises fears of double-dip recession | Biden officially announces Brian Deese as Senior Economic Advisor READ MORE (Ky.), Filed a brief to the Supreme Court on Friday supporting a Christian school’s candidacy for a religious exclusion from the Kentucky coronavirus restrictions.

The GOP court friend’s brief came shortly after Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear (D) filed a response to the court challenge, in which he defended his school shutdown order as being legal since it applies to secular and religious schools.

But the Republican record, supported by some of the more conservative members of the Senate like Sens. Ted cruzRafael (Ted) Edward CruzSenate Committee Approves Nominations of Three FEC Commissioners Cruz Urges Supreme Court to Meet Electoral Challenge in Pennsylvania OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Trump Administration Removes Bird Protection Over Objections | Trump’s Fossil Fuel Banking Proposal Gets Backlash from Libertarians | 2019 EU greenhouse gas emissions down 24% MORE (Texas) and Josh hawleyJoshua (Josh) David HawleyTrump Doubles Section 230 Repeal After GOP Rejection Senate Committee Approves Three FEC Commissioners Nominations Despite Threat of Veto, Congress Pushes Defense Bill Forward MORE (Mo.), argued that the restrictions amounted to an illegal cessation of religious activity.

“Everyone understands that it has been a difficult time for local leaders, but pandemics do not take away our First Amendment rights,” McConnell said in a statement. “Courts have had to repeatedly defend the Americans of faith against overzealous officials who have tried to treat religious institutions in a particularly unfavorable manner compared to other parts of society. Enough is enough.”

The GOP’s brief was addressed to justice Brett KavanaughBrett Michael KavanaughSupreme Court sees new requests for religious exclusion from COVID-19 For Thanksgiving, Supreme Court upholds religious freedom COVID-19: Justice Alito has crossed judicial borders MORE, which oversees emergency applications for an area that includes Kentucky. Among the lawyers representing lawmakers was President TrumpDonald John Trump Biden Says GOP Senators Called Him To Congratulate Biden: Trump’s Attendance At Inauguration Is ‘Important’ For Country Biden Says His Family Will Avoid Trade Disputes MOREDon McGahn, a former White House attorney who is now a private attorney with Jones Day.

The dispute arose after Danville Christian Academy, a private kindergarten to grade 12 school south of Lexington, Ky., And Kentucky GOP Attorney General Daniel Cameron filed a court challenge to the orders of the governor in health related to the pandemic.

The Order of Beshear demanded that all schools in Kentucky – both public and private, as well as secular and religious schools – cease teaching in person from late November through early January.

A federal district court barred the order from applying to religious schools, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit stayed the lower court’s decision. This prompted the challengers on Tuesday to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The Kentucky case is part of several disputes in which religious groups have called on judges to grant exemptions from the pandemic limits which they say constitute discrimination on the basis of faith, even as the country suffers a new increase in coronavirus cases.

National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins on Thursday implored religious leaders to shut down places of worship amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

Under a 5-4 court ruling last week in a New York-based dispute, a conservative majority ruled that health limits on places of worship could not be more restrictive than those on essential businesses .



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