Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/20a87_4g15.pdf
Page Number: 14.0

Cite as:  592 U. S. ____ (2020) 

7 

GORSUCH, J., concurring 

moot or otherwise outside our power to decide.  They coun-
sel  delay  only  because  “the  disease-related  circumstances
[are] rapidly changing.”  Post, at 5 (opinion of BREYER, J.).
But  look  at  what  those  “rapidly  changing”  circumstances 
suggest.  Both Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio have 
“indicated  it’s  only  a  matter  of  time  before  [all]  five  bor-
oughs” of New York City are flipped from yellow to orange. 
J. Skolnik, D. Goldiner, & D. Slattery, Staten Island Goes 
‘Orange’  As  Cuomo  Urges  Coronavirus  ‘Reality  Check’ 
Ahead of Thanksgiving, N. Y. Daily News (Nov. 23, 2020), 
https://www.nydailynews.com/coronavirus/ny-coronavirus-
cuomo-thanksgiving-20201123-yyhxfo3kzbdinbfbsqos3tvrk 
u-story-html.  On anyone’s account, then, it seems inevita-
ble this dispute will require the Court’s attention. 

It is easy enough to say it would be a small thing to re-
quire the parties to “refile their applications” later.  Post, at 
3 (opinion of BREYER, J.).  But none of us are rabbis won-
dering  whether  future  services  will  be  disrupted  as  the
High Holy Days were, or priests preparing for Christmas. 
Nor may we discount the burden on the faithful who have 
lived for months under New York’s unconstitutional regime 
unable  to  attend  religious  services.    Whether  this  Court 
could decide a renewed application promptly is beside the 
point.  The parties before us have already shown their enti-
tlement to relief.  Saying so now will establish clear legal
rules and enable both sides to put their energy to productive 
use, rather than devoting it to endless emergency litigation. 
Saying so now will dispel, as well, misconceptions about the 
role  of  the  Constitution  in  times  of  crisis,  which  have  al-
ready been permitted to persist for too long. 

It is time—past time—to make plain that, while the pan-
demic  poses  many  grave  challenges,  there  is  no  world  in
which  the  Constitution  tolerates  color-coded  executive 
edicts that reopen liquor stores and bike shops but shutter 
churches, synagogues, and mosques.