Radio Recap – BREAKING: Big Supreme Court Win for Churches in California

There was a big win at the Supreme Court for churches in California.

On today’s Jay Sekulow Live, we discussed the major victory for religious liberty. The Supreme Court of the United States ordered lower courts to reexamine California’s restrictions on indoor services.

As you know, in a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court said that bans on gatherings at places of worship was unconstitutional. They’ve now taken the next step in California as well. It’s an order that came out just this morning.

The order from the U.S. Supreme Court stated it very simply:

The application for injunctive relief, presented to Justice Kagan and by her referred to the Court, is treated as a petition for a writ of certiorari before judgment, and the petition is granted. The September 2 order of the United States District Court for the Central District of California is vacated, and the case is remanded to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit with instructions to remand to the District Court for further consideration in light of Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo, 592 U.S. _ (2020).

The case mentioned is the case out of New York where Governor Cuomo lost. That case was very similar where they were trying to ban houses of worship from having their services in person.

This is a huge win for all religious faiths in California. I think it sends a signal to the whole country now. The Supreme Court is applying what they did in New York very broadly and saying that if you try to do a similar thing like they did in California, you can’t. There’s also a case pending at the Supreme Court out of Illinois where we at the ACLJ have filed a brief. We expect that case to come down the same way as New York and California, specifically because of the addition of Justice Barrett to the Supreme Court.

As my dad, Jay Sekulow, said, “This is a really good sign for religious freedom.”

ACLJ Director of Policy Harry Hutchison added the following point:

It is clear beyond question that the Supreme Court is creating a pattern in strong support of religious liberty. Indeed, even if you look at the November 25th decision involving the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo, it’s important to keep in mind that that decision, with respect to religious liberty, is even stronger because both Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Breyer who voted in the minority, strongly supported the notion of religious liberty and they even believed that Governor Cuomo’s restrictions likely violated the 1st Amendment.

It appears that we now have a majority of Supreme Court Justices who are committed to religious liberty.

The full broadcast is complete with much more discussion by our team about this victory at the Supreme Court for religious freedom, as well as election fraud discussion with ACLJ Senior Advisor for National Security and Foreign Policy Ric Grenell, what has become a national election in Georgia for the Senate majority, and analysis of Attorney General Barr’s appointment of John Durham as Special Counsel for the origins of the Russia Probe.

Watch the full broadcast below.