Supreme Court Spanks Cuomo
How was your holiday? Mine was glorious.
I spent Thanksgiving on the Outer Banks and never once turned on the news or looked at a newspaper.
Late Wednesday night I had gotten an alert on my phone telling me that the U.S. Supreme Court had spanked Gov. Andrew Cuomo over his unconstitutional restrictions on houses of worship.
Happy Thanksgiving, America! That was all the good news I needed for a few days.
It was a 5-4 decision, which is shameful. It should have been unanimous. I can’t understand any constitutional scholar deciding that the Bill of Rights can be tossed aside by imperious governors who are afraid of a virus.
As usual, Chief Justice Roberts sided with the liberals, dancing on the head of a pin again, arguing that Cuomo’s most stringent restrictions on churches and synagogues had already been lifted.
Honestly. This man is a perpetual disappointment.
Forget Roberts. The conservative majority sent a signal that nine months into this pandemic, it’s time governors stopped stomping on constitutional rights.
What better place to start than with the First Amendment and religious freedoms?
“It is time — past time — to make plain that, while the pandemic poses many grave challenges, there is no world in which the Constitution tolerates color-coded executive edicts that reopen liquor stores and bike shops but shutter churches, synagogues and mosques,” the brilliant Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote.
Splendid.
Two things have been especially galling during the endless emergency orders: One is the assumption that constitutional rights are expendable and the other is the arbitrary and capricious nature of the gubernatorial orders.
Governors closing small shops, but leaving Walmart and liquor stores open is just one example of the erratic nature of the executive orders. Declaring certain businesses “non-essential” and thereby picking which would survive and which would wither and die. Closing schools when all of the science points to keeping them open.
What’s happening in the US is both infuriating and frightening. Yes, this pandemic will end with the widespread distribution of the vaccines next year. But now that governors have figured out just how easy it is to lead people into captivity, how long before they do it again?
Will a brutal flu season see more mask mandates? Will America’s new climate czar decide that a lockdown is essential to cut down on pollution?
Only a Supreme Court that reveres the Constitution can save us from this tyranny. Most state legislatures have shown an unwillingness to reign in their governors..
Neil Gorsuch wrote a blistering concurring opinion in this case.
"So, at least according to the Governor, it may be unsafe to go to church, but it is always fine to pick up another bottle of wine, shop for a new bike, or spend the afternoon exploring your distal points and meridians," Gorsuch wrote. "Who knew public health would so perfectly align with secular convenience?”
Take that, Cuomo.
“The governor is remarkably frank about this,” wrote Gorsuch. “In his judgment laundry and liquor, travel and tools, are all 'essential' while traditional religious exercises are not. That is exactly the kind of discrimination the First Amendment forbids.”
Meanwhile, in her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor signaled her willingness to subjugate the U.S. Constitution to the likes of Dr. Fauci.
"Justices of this Court play a deadly game in second guessing the expert judgment of health officials,” she wrote.
Yes, by all means let’s allow the unelected white coats make public policy. What could possibly go wrong?
Instead of apologizing for his abuse of power, Cuomo, America’s most arrogant governor, called the decision “irrelevant.”
Sorry. But when the highest court in the land accuses you of bias in favor of liquor stores and against the free exercise of religion, that’s about as relevant as it gets.
Cuomo - a lawyer - ought to be embarrassed for trampling the Constitution. And other governors should watch their steps.
