Trump Guts Protections for LGBTQ Staff and Expands Non secular Orgs’ Capacity to Discriminate in Last Weeks

New York-based attorney David Lurie warns that the right-wing majority in the United States Supreme Court is showing that it will do everything in its power to undermine public health restrictions aimed at combating the novel coronavirus pandemic are determined.

In The Daily Beast, Lurie discusses the court’s recent ruling to lift some of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s restrictions on religious gatherings and notes that Conservative justices view all public health guidelines with deep suspicion.

“The unsigned ‘per curiam’ majority opinion of the judicial majority, which is likely by[Justice Amy Coney]Barrett used a relatively anodyne language. Still, it made a baffling claim that indicated that Cuomo, without any evidence, harbored anti-Semitic prejudices and purposely “circled” the Zones to attack certain synagogues, “he notes.[JusticeAmyConey}Barrettusedrelativelyanodynelanguage;yetitmadeastartlingclaimsuggestingwithoutanyevidencewhatsoeverthatCuomoharborsanti-Semiticprejudiceanddeliberately’gerrymandered’thezonestotargetcertainsynagogues”henotes[JusticeAmyConey}Barrettusedrelativelyanodynelanguage;yetitmadeastartlingclaimsuggestingwithoutanyevidencewhatsoeverthatCuomoharborsanti-Semiticprejudiceanddeliberately‘gerrymandered’thezonestotargetcertainsynagogues”henotes

Lurie also predicts these judges will go out of their way to halt any public safety measures President-elect Joe Biden might take to slow the spread of the disease.

“In addition, the same judges who chose to overturn New York’s public health regulations regularly rail against the growing power of the so-called” administrative state, “” he writes. “And there is every reason to believe that their actions are as much aimed at weakening the power and authority of democratic governors (and soon to be presidents) to fight the pandemic as they are at protecting the rights of believers.”

In conclusion, Lurie concludes that “a majority of the Supreme Court members … appear intent on waging their own holy war on science and reason”.

Read the entire column here (subscription required).

Image from the White House via Wikimedia