New York governor Andrew Cuomo has actually asked a federal court to block the state’s own limitations on capacity at holy places in areas with high rates of coronavirus spread.
Cuomo provided an executive order in October buying houses of worship to accept no more than 10 people in so-called coronavirus “red” zones,” while 25 worshippers could be allowed “orange” zones. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in November that those restrictions were unconstitutional, in a case brought by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and Agudath Israel, an umbrella organization of Orthodox Jewish groups.
The Supreme Court’s ruling referred the case back to a lower court. The case was then described the U.S. District Court for New york city’s Eastern District, which overruled the pandemic limitations on praise on Monday.
” Accused [Cuomo] has actually consented to an injunction against enforcement of the … capacity limitations in red and orange zones,” Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto composed in the Monday injunction “Subsequently, Defendant’s counsel has represented in status conferences that prior to the end of February 2021,” the executive order’s restrictions “will be amended to eliminate holy places.”
So @NYGovCuomo is asking a court to stop him from implementing his own executive order, which struck some attorneys as odd
An outgrowth of that is that the state is asking a court not to speak with New York’s health commissioner about how pandemic health policy was made
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— J. David Goodman (@jdavidgoodman) February 8, 2021
Matsumoto’s ruling came after legal representatives for the guv asked to cancel a hearing on the case, in a series of filings initially reported by The New York City Times Aides to the governor told the Times that the state did not support an injunction versus Cuomo’s executive order, however likewise did not oppose the injunction.
One outcome of allowing the District Court to block the executive order was to avoid New york city State health commissioner Howard Zucker from standing for statement at a previously-scheduled hearing in the case. Eric Rassbach, vice president and senior counsel at religious-liberty advocacy group Becket, alleged that the decision to drop the case was made to prevent Zucker from affirming in ourt.
” The Guv is frantically attempting to avoid testimony revealing that his orders shutting down synagogues and churches weren’t based upon public health, however on politics,” Rassbach stated in a statement.
However, the state may have chosen to drop the case due to the fact that they understood they would lose in court, Expense Hammond, senior fellow for health policy at the Empire Center, informed National Evaluation
” It may just be that they don’t want to have this battle,” Hammond said.
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