Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/19a1070_08l1.pdf
Page Number: 5

Cite as:  591 U. S. ____ (2020) 

5 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

safety  measures  than  the  worship  services  that  Calvary 
Chapel proposes to conduct.  Patrons at a craps or blackjack 
table  do  not  customarily  stay  six  feet  apart.    Casinos  are 
permitted to serve alcohol, which is well known to induce 
risk  taking,  and  drinking  generally  requires  at  least  the 
temporary removal of masks.  Casinos attract patrons from 
all over the country.  In anticipation of reopening, one ca-
sino owner gave away 2,000 one-way airline tickets to Las 
Vegas.  ECF Doc. 38–9, p. 4.  And when the Governor an-
nounced that casinos would be permitted to reopen, he in-
vited visitors to come to the State.1  The average visitor to 
Las Vegas visits more than six different casinos, potentially 
gathering with far more than 50 persons in each one.  ECF 
Doc. 38–6, p. 44.  Visitors to Las Vegas who gamble do so 
for more than two hours per day on average, id., at 43, and 
gamblers in a casino often move from one spot to another, 
trying their luck at different games or at least at different 
slot machines. 
  Houses  of  worship  can—and  have—adopted  rules  that 
provide  far  more  protection.    Family  groups  can  be  given 
places in the pews that are more than six feet away from 
others.    Worshippers  can  be  required  to  wear  masks 
throughout the service or for all but a very brief time.  Wor-
shippers do not customarily travel from distant spots to at-
tend  a  particular  church;  nor  do  they  generally  hop  from 
church to church to sample different services on any given 
Sunday.    Few  worship  services  last  two  hours.    (Calvary 
Chapel now limits its services to 45 minutes.)  And worship-
pers do not generally mill around the church while a service 
is in progress. 
  The idea that allowing Calvary Chapel to admit 90 wor-
shippers presents a greater public health risk than allowing 

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1 See Jones, Nevada Governor Green-Lights June 4 Reopening of Casi-
nos;  Las  Vegas  Gets  Ready, L.  A.  Times  (May  26,  2020),  www.latimes. 
com/travel/story/2020-05-26/nevada-governor-oks-reopening-vegas-prepares.