The Supreme Court ruled in two cases in which representatives of several church dioceses of California demanded that a state order banning religious services in church buildings be declared illegal due to the danger of the spread of coronavirus among parishioners.
The decision of the Supreme Court was truly “Solomon”. On the one hand, the country’s highest court ruled that the total ban on services inside church premises was unauthorized and ruled that they could be held when 25% of their capacity was filled. On the other hand, the judges refused to overturn the implementation of the state administration’s summer decision to ban the chanting and chanting of prayers and other religious texts on church premises. According to experts, the virus spreads more easily indoors by air, and when singing or chanting loudly, a significant number of tiny droplets, possibly containing coronavirus, enter the air.
“Urgent applications” for claims were submitted to the Supreme Court of the United Pentecostal Church in Chula Vista, Harvest Rock Church and Harvest International Ministry in Pasadena. The decision was taken by five votes of the conservative wing of the Supreme Court, and three judges of the liberal wing voted against it, citing the fact that the removal of restrictions, even partial, could complicate the course of the coronavirus pandemic in the state and throughout the country. They also noted that this decision makes an exception for religious institutions, while bans on gathering large groups of people in closed rooms, where they are for a long time and where it is impossible to maintain the necessary “social distance” between them, remain in force.
Newspaper headline:
“Solomon” decision of the Supreme Court