Pray for common sense

Despite the pre-Thanksgiving eagerness of five justices of the U.S. Supreme Court to unnecessarily undercut Gov. Cuomo’s reasonable limitations on religious gatherings in COVID hotspots, which at that point had already been set aside, the case lives on.

Lower federal courts mustn’t be confused by the high court’s untimely intervention: New York is allowed to restrict religious gatherings to protect public health, so long as it does so in a manner that doesn’t unfairly disadvantage faith groups.

In October, an umbrella group of Orthodox Jewish congregations and the Brooklyn Catholic Diocese separately sued to knock down Cuomo’s tight rules, which in a red zone barred all indoor secular gatherings while permitting groups of 10 in churches, synagogues, mosques etc.

Both the Jews and the Catholics tried to have judges decree unconstitutional infringement of the First Amendment right to freely practice religion. Judges didn’t buy it, for good reason.

Then the high court jumped in and forbade the red-zone 10-person cap (and 25 person cap in orange zones) even though at that point the zones had already been lifted. Not helpful.

The state has long since dropped the fixed limits and will, going forward, rely only on percentage occupancy caps, so there’s no legitimate dispute any longer.

This was never about hurting religion. Any indoor gathering where people spend hours alongside strangers, singing and chanting, risks spreading the virus. It doesn’t matter whether the song is “Amazing Grace” or the latest Taylor Swift hit.

Friday, all the lawyers were back before the federal appeals court. Though we disagree with the Supreme Court’s ruling, one could see the logic of nixing an arbitrary 10-person cap for an enormous synagogue or church. No one can reasonably take issue with a limit on the size of gatherings based on building capacity. Can they?