On Friday February 26, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Santa Clara County churches in California, and rejected the county’s ban on indoor worship services due to their COVID-19 restrictions.
Santa Clara County ignored the February 6, 2021 Supreme Court’s order that granted churches in California the right to worship indoors at 25% of a building’s capacity. The court’s justices still allow for the state to ban singing and chanting to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
With a 6-3 win, the court’s three liberal justices, Elena Kagan, Stephen Breyer, and Sonia Sotomayor voted against the order which called “the Ninth Circuit’s failure to grant the Santa Clara churches relief erroneous.”
The Court wrote in the order about their decision, “This outcome is clearly dictated by this Court’s decision in South Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Newsom.”
Santa Clara argued that it’s Covid-19 temporary ban on indoor gatherings which included worship gatherings should be allowed to stand as they attempt to control the spread of the coronavirus. They said that they weren’t treating worship gatherings any different than any other indoor gatherings.
In a recent letter to the Supreme Court, Santa Clara said the county expected “to lift the prohibition on indoor gatherings” very soon and cited March 3, 2021 as a possible date because of the decline of COVID-19 rates.
People reacted to the Supreme Court’s ruling on Friday, one of those being Franklin Graham who posted on Twitter, ” I thank God for our Constitution that protects the right of churches to assemble and worship.”