The Supreme Court has approved injunctive relief for churches in Santa Clara County to open for indoor services, starting immediately. This move may be a bellwether for similar cases around the nation and demonstrates a likelihood that the church has a majority of friendly Justices willing to rule on their behalf. Leftist Justices Kagan, Breyer, and Sotomayor all dissented.

BREAKING: SCOTUS orders California’s Santa Clara County to allow churches to hold indoor services. Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan dissent. Here’s the short shadow docket order. https://t.co/pLGpSaReY6 pic.twitter.com/fsSgtmewNl

— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) February 27, 2021

The ruling will allow churches to open while appeals are pending. If the appeals reach the Supreme Court, as they most certainly will, then it seems likely Justices Thomas, Kavanaugh, Barrett, Alito, Gorsuch, and Chief Justice Roberts will side with the First Amendment. Here’s the ruling:

The application for injunctive relief presented to Justice Kagan and by her referred to the Court is granted pending disposition of the appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and disposition of the petition for a writ of certiorari, if such writ is timely sought. The Ninth Circuit’s failure to grant relief was erroneous. This outcome is clearly dictated by this Court’s decision in South Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Newsom, 592 U. S. ___ (2021). Should the petition for a writ of certiorari be denied, this order shall terminate automatically. In the event the petition for a writ of certiorari is granted, the order shall terminate upon the sending down of the judgment of this Court.

Justice Kagan, with whom Justice Breyer and Justice Sotomayor join, dissenting: I dissent for the reasons set out in South Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Newsom, 592 U. S. ___ (2021) (Kagan, J., dissenting).

Religious liberties are being challenged across the country. The Covid-19 lockdowns have often targeted houses of worship as “non-essential” and therefore rendered not of interest for lockdown exceptions. It’s noteworthy that casinos, liquor stores, and strip clubs have had easier times opening up than churches.

Questions have been floating among conservative circles as to the actual makeup of the Supreme Court. Chief Justice Roberts has gone from moderate to full-blown progressive. Justices Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, and Barrett have been disappointments to various degrees. Only Justices Thomas and Alito have maintained their constitutional originalist status. This ruling could show that on the topic of First Amendment religious protections, even the lukewarm conservatives are unwilling to break them.

Churches are essential and indoor services benefit the faithful. As fear of Covid-19 persists despite science saying it’s not the existential threat that it’s billed as, it’s good to see the Supreme Court get something right.

COVID-19 lockdowns are taking down an independent news outlet

Nobody said running a media site would be easy. We could use some help keeping this site afloat.

Colleagues have called me the worst fundraiser ever. My skills are squarely rooted on the journalistic side of running a news outlet. Paying the bills has never been my forte, but we’ve survived. We have ads on the site that help, but since the site’s inception this has been a labor of love that otherwise doesn’t bring in the level of revenue necessary to justify it.

When I left a nice, corporate career in 2017, I did so knowing I wouldn’t make nearly as much money. But what we do at NOQ Report to deliver the truth and fight the progressive mainstream media narrative that has plagued this nation is too important for me to sacrifice it for the sake of wealth. We know we’ll never make a ton of money this way, and we’re okay with that.

Things have become harder with the coronavirus lockdowns. Both ad money and donations that have kept us afloat for a while have dropped dramatically. We thought we could weather the storm, but the resurgence of lockdowns that mainstream media and Democrats are pushing has put our prospects in jeopardy. In short, we are now in desperate need of financial assistance.

The best way NOQ Report readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. We need approximately $17,300 to stay afloat through March when we hope the economy will be more open, but more would be wonderful and any amount that brings us closer to our goal is greatly appreciated.

The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. This shouldn’t be the case as our traffic the last year has been going up dramatically. June, 2018, we had 11,678 visitors. A year later in June, 2019, we were up to 116,194. In June, 2020, we had 614,192. In November, 2020, we hit 1.2 million visitors.

We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.

As the world spirals towards radical progressivism, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.

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