In a 5-4 ruling, the US Supreme Court sided with religious organizations in New York stating that the Covid-19 restrictions put in place by Gov. Andrew Cuomo that limited the number of people attending religious services are unconstitutional. 
 
The court's decision came in response to lawsuits filed by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and Agudath Israel of America after Cuomo implemented “red” and “orange” zones restricting indoor religious gatherings to 10 to 25 people respectively, regardless of building capacity. The Brooklyn synagogue argued that Cuomo had "singled out a particular religion for blame and retribution for an uptick in a society-wide pandemic.”
 
On Wednesday, the court ruled in favor of the religious organizations, stating that the pandemic-related occupancy restrictions violate the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause, because they treated the houses of worship more harshly than commercial facilities. Barrett sided with her conservative colleagues in the dispute, while Chief Justice John Roberts joined the three liberal justices in dissent. 
 
The majority said that the regulations were "far more restrictive than any Covid-related regulations that have previously come before the court, much tighter than those adopted by many other jurisdictions hard hit by the pandemic, and far more severe than has been shown to be required to prevent the spread of the virus" at the religious services in question.

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