In a Friday night decision, the Supreme Court denied a Nevada church’s petition to block enforcement of Governor Steve Sisolak’s restrictions limiting religious gatherings to 50 people, regardless of the size of the building. Under Governor Sisolak’s orders, casinos, restaurants, and movie theaters are allowed to open at 50% capacity, rather than being limited to a strict number limit the way that churches are. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court allowed Nevada to continue to discriminate against churches by holding them to stricter limits than secular gatherings, thus communicating that to both Nevada and the majority on the Supreme Court, entertainment is more essential than the free exercise of religion.
In response to the Court’s refusal to block enforcement of Governor Sisolak’s orders, Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel David Cortman said,
The First Amendment requires the government to treat religious organizations, at a minimum, the same as comparable secular organizations. When the government treats churches worse than casinos, gyms, and indoor amusement parks in its COVID-19 response, it clearly violates the Constitution. As Justice Alito noted, ‘The Constitution guarantees the free exercise of religion. It says nothing about the freedom to play craps or blackjack, to feed tokens into a slot machine, or to engage in any other game of chance.’
Calvary Chapel Dayton Valley had requested to be allowed to hold services for 90 people, which would have been roughly 50% their fire-code capacity. By denying their petition, the court favored gambling—an activity that is not protected by the Constitution—over the First Amendment right to free exercise of religion. In his dissent, Justice Kavanaugh pointed out that, while Nevada has a compelling interest in combating the spread of COVID-19 in order to protect the health of its citizens, “it does not have a persuasive public health reason for treating churches differently from restaurants, bars, casinos, and gyms.” States are navigating the challenges of reopening amid a pandemic, but that does not mean that they get to attack religious freedom by holding churches to a different standard than everyone else. If casinos are allowed to open at 50% capacity, churches should also be allowed to do so. As Justice Gorsuch put it, “there is no world in which the Constitution permits Nevada to favor Caesars Palace over Calvary Chapel.”
