Supreme Court Sides With N. Caldwell Priest Over Gathering Limits

NORTH CALDWELL, NEW JERSEY— The U.S. Supreme Court has sided with a Lakewood rabbi and a North Caldwell priest who filed suit in May, claiming New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy's ban on public gatherings and a stay-at-home order violated religious protections under the U.S. Constitution.

Rabbi Yisrael A. Knopfler of Lakewood and Rev. Kevin Robinson, a priest at St. Anthony of Padua Church in North Caldwell, filed suit in federal court in May over the gatherings ban, which was put in place because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The lawsuit sought an injunction barring New Jersey from applying more restrictive limits on indoor public gatherings to in-person religious worship than are applied to "comparable secular activities," such as the capacity limits on essential retail businesses or non-retail establishments.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court upheld the petition for an injunction and ordered the Third Circuit Court of Appeals to decide the case in line with a 5-4 ruling the Supreme Court issued in late November in a New York lawsuit.

Read the full report here.

This article contains reporting by Karen Wall, Patch staff

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