Justice Alito: COVID restrictions 'previously unimaginable'

FILE - In this March 7, 2019, file photo, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito testifies before the House Appropriations Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File) (Susan Walsh, Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

WASHINGTON ā€“ Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito sounded an alarm about restrictions imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic, saying they shouldn't become a ā€œrecurring feature after the pandemic has passed.ā€

ā€œThe pandemic has resulted in previously unimaginable restrictions on individual liberty,ā€ Alito said in an address Thursday to the conservative Federalist Society, which is holding its annual convention virtually because of the pandemic.

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Alito noted that he was ā€œnot diminishing the severity of the virus' threat to public healthā€ or saying anything about ā€œwhether any of these restrictions represent good public policy.ā€ He cautioned against his words being ā€œtwisted or misunderstood.ā€

But he said it is an ā€œindisputable statement of fact" that ā€œwe have never before seen restrictions as severe, extensive and prolonged as those experienced for most of 2020.ā€

ā€œWhatever one may think about the COVID restrictions, we surely donā€™t want them to become a recurring feature after the pandemic has passed," said Alito, who was nominated to the court by President George W. Bush.

Alito was particularly critical of two cases earlier this year where the court sided with states that, citing the coronavirus pandemic, imposed restrictions on the size of religious gatherings. In both cases, the court divided 5-4 in allowing those restrictions to continue with Chief Justice John Roberts siding with the court's liberals.

In May, the high court rejected an emergency appeal by a California church challenging attendance limits at worship services. The justices turned away a similar challenge by a Nevada church in July. Alito said in both cases the restrictions had ā€œblatantly discriminated against houses of worshipā€ and he warned that ā€œreligious liberty is in danger of becoming a second-class right.ā€

Both cases came to the court before the death in September of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The liberal justice's replacement by conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett could change how the court might come out on similar cases in the future. Currently before the court is a case involving the Catholic church and limits on in-person services in New York.


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