CNA Staff, Dec 15, 2020 / 13:00 pm
The Supreme Court accepted a church's appeal against coronavirus restrictions in the state of Colorado on Tuesday, even after the governor reclassified churches to stop the rules applying.
High Plains Harvest Church in Eaton, Colorado, had appealed to the Supreme Court for relief from the state's capacity limits on indoor religious services during the pandemic. Colorado had limited attendance at houses of worship to just 50 people, in certain areas where the virus was spreading acutely.
However, on Dec. 7 the state reclassified houses of worship as "critical businesses," thus exempting them from the 50-person capacity restriction.
Last week, Gov. Jared Polis (D) asked the Supreme Court to drop the case, as the restrictions no longer applied, and cited the Supreme Court's Nov. 25 ruling in Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo, where the court granted relief for Catholic churches and Orthodox Jewish synagogues from the state's capacity limits for indoor religious services.