VICTORY FOR THE HOLY MASSES
Judge rips NYS limit on worship services
A federal judge ruled Friday that it was illegal for Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio to limit religious worship services over the coronavirus while condoning and encouraging mass anti-police-brutality protests.
“It is not the judiciary’s role to second guess the likes of Gov. Cuomo or Mayor de Blasio when it comes to decisions they make in such troubling times, that is, until those decisions result in the curtailment of fundamental rights without compelling justification,” Northern District federal Judge Gary Sharpe wrote.
Sharpe, who is based in Albany, issued a preliminary injunction barring Cuomo, state Attorney General Letitia James and de Blasio from ordering or enforcing COVID-19 restrictions on outdoor religious worship gatherings.
In stinging language, Sharpe dressed down Cuomo and de Blasio for giving “preferential treatment” to thousands of protesters marching in close quarters in the streets — clearly violating social-distancing rules to curb COVID-19 — while aggressively enforcing limitations on religious gatherings.
“Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio could have just as easily discouraged protests, short of condemning their message, in the name of public health and exercised discretion to suspend enforcement for public safety reasons instead of encouraging what they knew was a flagrant disregard of the outdoor limits and social distancing rules,” wrote Sharpe.
“They could have also been silent. But by acting as they did, Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio sent a clear message that mass protests are deserving of preferential treatment.”
Sharpe also said faith-based New Yorkers and their religious institutions’ free-speech rights were trampled upon by social-distancing rules set by the state that were more severe than for secular businesses.
He noted that offices, retail stores, salons and restaurants are now permitted to open at 50 percent capacity indoors — double the 25 percent indoor limits imposed on places of worship.
The case was recently brought by two Catholic priests and three Orthodox Jews, who sued de Blasio, Cuomo and James — accusing them of an “unprecedented abuse of power” in shuttering houses of worship while supporting mass protests.
Upstate priests Rev. Steven Soos and Rev. Nicholas Stamos and Brooklyn Jewish congregants Elchanan Perr, Daniel Schonborn and Mayer Mayerfeld argued New York’s leaders “exploited the COVID-19 pandemic” to create “a veritable dictatorship” with their lockdown rules.
And the judge pointed to another example in Cuomo’s orders — allowing 150 people to gather for school graduations.
A spokesman said Cuomo was reviewing the decision.