On July 8, 2020, Calvary Chapel Dayton Valley filed an application with the United States Supreme Court for an Emergency Application for an Injunction Pending Appellate Review.
The respondents are Steve Sisolak, in his official capacity as Governor of Nevada; Aaron Ford, in his official capacity as Attorney General of Nevada; and Frank Hunewill, in his official capacity as Sheriff of Lyon County.
This case found its way to the Supreme Court after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denied Calvary Chapel’s emergency motions for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction in their months-long effort to convince the State of Nevada that they should be allowed to open their church to more than 50 congregants at a time.
In the end, on July 24, 2020, the United States Supreme Court denied Calvary Chapel’s application, siding with Nevada’s Governor.
As the liberal Twitter mob metaphorically danced a victory dance in their cyber streets, conservatives across the country lamented the 5-4 decision that found Chief Justice Roberts joining Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan to deny the injunction.
Justices Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh dissented.
At the heart of this dispute is Governor Sisolak’s Directive 021, which limits mass gatherings in common situations to 50 people. Not just religious congregations, but also for movie theaters, museums, art galleries, zoos, aquariums, and trade or technical schools. It is a “catch all” rule to ensure that all entities not receiving special consideration were accounted for.
Special rules, allowing up to 50% of the fire-code capacity, were created for other types of facilities, most notably casinos. Calvary Chapel was asking only to be treated equally to this special group.
While there are interesting arguments made on both sides, along with legal wrangling about the relevancy of previous cases cited to bolster the winning position, at the very core is the unwillingness of both the State of Nevada and five Supreme Court Justices to grant that religious worship is protected by the Consitution from being treated no differently than secular businesses.
Read the Application for an Injunction Relief here.
The State of Nevada’s response can be seen here.
The dissenting opinions are here.
The Court was, when it was all said and done, unable to see that religious institutions are a singular classification and should be treated differently than other secular entities.
The best reasoning the State could come up with was that they treated some businesses the same, or even worse than they treated Calvary Chapel. This reasoning totally ignores the reality that freedom of religious expression is an inalienable right, protected by the Constitution, while business entities are not.
This growing idea that religious freedom is no more special than the desire any company may have to conduct business is an indication that Americans are losing sight of what has made this country unique and special since its inception.
Unfortunately, many regular Americans, not even considering those holding the view that religion is generally evil and should be done away with, will – at first blush – not immediately identify the faulty reasoning behind comparing secular businesses and religious institutions as they warrant government protection.
The fact that Justice Roberts, historically considered to be a politically conservative Justice, sided with those Justices that would be expected to disregard the inherently special position of a religious institution is but another indication that the anti-religion culture war is gaining ground.
He is known to be a good, honest, and honorable man, but the perception that religious institutions are deserving of no deferential treatment over that of a business is so vast that, apparently, Justice Roberts couldn’t see past it.
No one but Justice Roberts can say which of the State’s arguments compelled him to overlook that “First Amendment prohibits such obvious discrimination against the exercise of religion. The world we inhabit today, with a pandemic upon us, poses unusual challenges. But there is no world in which the Constitution permits Nevada to favor Caesars Palace over Calvary Chapel,” as stated by Justice Gorsuch in his dissenting opinion.
Steve Bowcut is an award-winning journalist covering cyber and physical security. He is an editor and writer for Brilliance Security Magazine as well as other security and non-security online publications. Follow and connect with Steve on Twitter, and Facebook.
