In an opinion written in a case involving the end of the Covid-emergency lockdown, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch said that Americans have seen “the greatest intrusions on civil liberties in the peacetime history of this country.”
“Executive officials across the country issued emergency decrees on a breathtaking scale,” Justice Gorsuch wrote. “They shuttered businesses and schools, public and private. They closed churches even as they allowed casinos and other favored businesses to carry on. They threatened violators not just with civil penalties but with criminal sanctions too. They surveilled church parking lots, recorded license plates, and issued notices warning that attendance at even outdoor services satisfying all state social-distancing and hygiene requirements could amount to criminal conduct.”