CA Governor Gavin Newsom Finally Admits He's Not Bigger Than Jesushttps://pjmedia.com/uncategorized/victoria-taft/2021/04/13/ca-governor-gavin-newsom-finally-admits-hes-not-bigger-than-jesus-n1438263California Governor Gavin Newsom finally bent a knee to the First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion and admitted that he and his COVID rules are not bigger than Jesus Christ—or small houses of worship, for that matter.
It only took a year, millions of dollars in legal expenses, and people who put away their fear to fight the state and pray to their God at house church gatherings to change the law.
On Monday, Newsom and company ceased requiring location and capacity limitations on these churches.
In response to recent judicial rulings, effective immediately, location and capacity limits on places of worship are not mandatory but are strongly recommended. The linked guidance is in the process of being updated. All other restrictions in the guidance remain in place.
Whether for house churches or small groups from larger churches, it's about time! Multiple USSC rulings have chewed away at Noisome's thinly smoke-screened anti-religious regulations. Given the current long-term lack of any kind of new cases surge, similar regs on businesses should be reviewed from a perspective of having to prove that
any of them are justifiable.
The USSC ruling made some important distinctions.
First, a state being able to point out that
some similar activities are treated similarly or worse does not satisfy the Strict Scrutiny standard for evaluating whether a restriction violates Free Exercise. If some similar activities are less restricted (as was the case), then the reg violates Free Exercise.
Second, a state loosening its reg after being challenged does not moot the challenge, as the state can easily retighten the reg after the challenge is dismissed as moot.