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WASHINGTON – Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito sounded an alarm on Thursday over restrictions imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic, saying they should not become a “recurring feature after the pandemic has passed.”
“The pandemic has resulted in previously unimaginable restrictions on individual liberty,” Alito said in a speech to the Conservative Federalist Society, which holds its annual convention virtually because of the pandemic.
Alito noted that he was “not lessening the severity of the virus’ threat to public health” or that he was not saying anything about “whether any of these restrictions represent good public policy.” He warned against his “twisted or misunderstood” words.
But he said it was an “indisputable statement of fact” that “we have never before seen such severe, extensive and prolonged restrictions as those suffered during most of 2020.”
“Whatever one thinks of the COVID restrictions, we certainly don’t want them to become a recurring feature after the pandemic has passed,” said Alito, who was appointed to the court by President George W. Bush. .
Alito was particularly critical of two cases earlier this year where the court sided with states which, citing the coronavirus pandemic, have placed restrictions on the size of religious gatherings. In both cases, the court split 5-4 by allowing those restrictions to continue with Chief Justice John Roberts on the Liberal side of the court.
In May, the High Court dismissed an emergency appeal from a church in California challenging attendance limits for worship services.
Judges rejected a similar challenge launched by a Nevada church in July. Alito said that in both cases the restrictions had “clearly discriminated against places of worship” and warned that “religious freedom is in danger of becoming a second-rate right”.
Both cases went to court before the death in September of Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Replacing Liberal Justice with Conservative Judge Amy Coney Barrett could change the way the court might rule on similar cases in the future. Currently in court is a case involving the Catholic Church and the limits of in-person services in New York City.
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