Viewpoints
Opinion

Supreme Court Curbs the COVID Police

Supreme Court Curbs the COVID Police
New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks at a news conference in New York City on Sept. 8, 2020. Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Rob Natelson
|Updated:
Commentary
The Supreme Court has protected religious liberty against the COVID police. The case was Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo (pdf). The “Cuomo” was New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Let’s unpack the court’s decision.

The Facts

There were really two cases—one brought by the Diocese and the other by Agudath Israel of America, an orthodox Jewish denomination. I’ll call the Diocese and Agudath Israel the “applicants” because they applied for a preliminary injunction. They sued to stop one of Cuomo’s executive orders addressing the CCP virus.
Rob Natelson
Rob Natelson
Author
Robert G. Natelson, a former constitutional law professor who is senior fellow in constitutional jurisprudence at the Independence Institute in Denver, authored “The Original Constitution” (4th ed., 2025). He is a contributor to the Heritage Foundation’s “Heritage Guide to the Constitution.”
Related Topics