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2  SOUTH BAY UNITED PENTECOSTAL CHURCH v. NEWSOM 

ROBERTS, C. J., concurring 

and would stay for 30 days an injunction against the per-
centage attendance caps and the prohibition against indoor 
singing and chanting.  JUSTICE ALITO would have the stay 
lift  in  30  days  unless  the  State  demonstrates  clearly  that 
nothing short of those measures will reduce the community 
spread  of  COVID–19  at  indoor  religious  gatherings to  the 
same extent as do the restrictions the State enforces with 
respect to other activities it classifies as essential. 
  CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS, concurring in the partial grant 
of application for injunctive relief. 
  As  I  explained  the  last  time  the  Court  considered  this 
evolving case, federal courts owe significant deference to po-
litically accountable officials with the “background, compe-
tence,  and  expertise  to  assess  public  health.”    South  Bay 
United  Pentecostal  Church  v.  Newsom,  590  U. S.  ___,  ___ 
(2020)  (opinion  concurring  in  denial  of  application  for  in-
junctive relief ) (slip op., at 2).  The State has concluded, for 
example,  that  singing  indoors  poses  a  heightened  risk  of 
transmitting  COVID–19.   I see  no  basis  in this record  for 
overriding that aspect of the state public health framework.  
At the same time, the State’s present determination—that 
the maximum number of adherents who can safely worship 
in the most cavernous cathedral is zero—appears to reflect 
not expertise or discretion, but instead insufficient appreci-
ation or consideration of the interests at stake. 
  I adhere to the view that the “Constitution principally en-
trusts the safety and the health of the people to the politi-
cally  accountable  officials  of  the  States.”    Ibid.  (internal 
quotation marks and alteration omitted).  But the Consti-
tution also entrusts the protection of the people’s rights to 
the Judiciary—not despite judges being shielded by life ten-
ure, see post, at 6 (KAGAN, J., dissenting), but because they 
are.  Deference, though broad, has its limits.