#BREAKING: The Supreme Court just handed down a HUGE victory for religious freedom—stopping Gov. Cuomo from imposing discriminatory #COVID19 limits on Orthodox Jewish synagogues and Catholic churches in New York City: https://s3.amazonaws.com/becketnewsite/20A87.pdf

This is a developing thread -- more to come soon!

Agudath Israel, a 98-year-old Jewish advocacy group headquartered in NYC, with the help of @BECKETlaw & @Troutmanpepper, filed an emergency application last week: https://s3.amazonaws.com/becketnewsite/Agudath-Israel-v.-Cuomo-Emergency-Application-for-Writ-of-Injunction.pdf.

A separate application for injunction was filed by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn. #SCOTUS granted both injunctions shortly before midnight the day before #Thanksgiving.

In its opinion, the Court made several important points. First, the Court said that “statements made in connection with the challenged rules can be viewed as targeting the ‘ultra-Orthodox [Jewish] community.’”

Indeed, when Governor Cuomo drew restrictive “red” and “orange” lockdown zones in New York City, he himself admitted that he was “targeting” predominately Orthodox Jewish communities.

Second, the Court said that “the regulations cannot be viewed as neutral because they single out houses of worship for especially harsh treatment.”

That is because in lockdown zones “businesses categorized as “essential” may admit as many people as they wish” while synagogues and churches are limited to 10 or 25 people.