In the United States, the weight of navigating the global pandemic that has unfolded in the last year has fallen on the shoulders of state and federal legislators. In an effort to combat the mass spread of COVID-19 seen in New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo has shut down gatherings of large amounts of people, pertaining to schooling, religious worship, etc, in an attempt to stifle the “microclusters” of infection that can be found throughout the state. This effort, however, has targeted the Orthodox Jewish community throughout New York. An example of this is on October 6th of 2020, just days before major Jewish holidays, Governor Cuomo issued an executive order that shut down celebration citing a spike in COVID-19 positive cases as reasoning even though the spike in rates would be considered a “safe zone” in many other states.
The aforementioned navigation revolves around the balancing of the American public’s safety and ensuring there is no infringement on the constitutional rights of American citizens. One of the most difficult parts of this balancing act can be seen in how it relates to schooling, particularly secular education which is exemplified in the case of Lebovits v. Cuomo. The Lebovits family chose to send their daughters to Bais Yaakov Ateres Miriam, an Orthodox Jewish girls school that is dedicated to educating young Orthodox Jewish women on their religion, its teachings, and its traditions. When the pandemic first struck, the school took the necessary precautions to ensure the safety of its student body and faculty by equipping them with the proper tools to learn remotely. Yet, despite the school equipping its students to learn the best they could, remote learning was not sufficient enough for the educational or religious standards typically upheld by the school. Bais Yaakov Ateres Miriam followed in New York state’s footsteps and proceeded to reopen in the fall of 2020 following strict COVID protocols which were successful in not transmitting the disease within the school’s population. Although there was no positive COVID-19 test in the school community and Governor Cuomo himself stating that schools are not considered to be “significant spreaders” of the disease, the Governor and Mayor de Blasio still shut the school down once again stating their motivation as “fear” of the disease’s potential to spread. Governor Cuomo did rescind his orders allowing the Lebovits family to return to their schooling at Bais Yaakov Ateres Miriam; however, the Lebovits family and Basis Yaakov Ateres Miriam have asked the District Court in the Northern District of New York, to protect the school from potential religiously-based discrimination in the future and to hold both the Mayor and Governor accountable for the violation of their rights as protected by the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.
At face value, the precautions taken by the Governor and Mayor seem to be justified as they protect the public from the spread of COVID-19, but the manner in which they have specifically restricted Orthodox Jewish worship and education is evidence of the presence of religious animus. This can be seen in the Governor using the word “fear” to describe his motivations for shutting down Orthodox Jewish schools rather than basing it on science or signing an executive order into effect that prevents worship days before Jewish holidays that are considered sacred. These actions taken by the Governor mimic the ones seen in the religious animus Jack C. Phillips faced by the state of Colorado’s Civil Rights Commission in Masterpiece Cakeshop Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Phillips as he did not receive neutral treatment by the Civil Rights Commission which is protected by the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment and instead was treated with hostility regarding his religious beliefs. The Supreme Court's ruling here upholds the Free Exercise Clause, which was not extended to the Lebovits family by Governor Cuomo's actions.
I agree with the Lebovits family and Bais Yaakov Ateres Miriam’s decision to pursue legal action against the actions of Governor Cuomo and Mayor De Blasio. My reasoning for this is the Governor disregarded the neutrality toward religion and the protection given to minority religions outlined in the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. Attempting to keep citizens of New York safe does not require any governmental actors to show religious animus toward the Orthodox Jewish community in the form of basing major decisions regarding education and worship around “fear” or specifically rescinding celebration rights days before holy holidays. Even if the Governor has rescinded his order preventing in-person learning, this does not guarantee a future free of potential religious animus that could impact the community once again.
5 comments:
I initially believed Governor Cuomo and the Mayor of New York have enough reason to protect the public from the spread of COVID19 that they need to close the schools. The law appears facially neutral and the state is trying to prevent the spread of COVID19. However, through this blog post, it is clear that the Orthodox Jewish community is being targeted and affected more than other groups and schools. While I can understand the argument to prevent the spread of the virus, it does not appear that the same action is being taken against other schools. Therefore, I agree with the author.
I agree with Meredith that Governor Cuomo and the state of New York did have probable cause to shut down New York Public schools attending in person and instead switch to remote learning. This policy is ultimately neutral because it was implemented across all schools in the state of New York, and not just targeting minority religious schools. However, the refusal of the Governor to support minority religions from discrimination is in fact in violation of the free exercise clause. At the point where the Orthodox Jewish school reopened in the Fall 2021 under strict COVID-19 protocols, but then just that school was shut down by the state of New York proves that the minority Jewish religious schools were being targeted and the state of New York was ultimately using the pandemic as an excuse to shut their practices down.
During the beginning stages of the pandemic, the regulations set forth by the state of New York and Cuomo were more than justifiable. This was a neutral regulation that was placed on all schools, not just the Orthodox schools. Beyond this point, I would agree with the author that the Orthodox community has been negatively impacted the most by the legislation. The ruling to prevent celebrations, just days before Jewish holidays, does not seem coincidental. It does not appear that all groups and schools are being treated similarly.
It seems that initially Governor Cuomo and the state of New York were conducting a neutral policy by closing all New York public schools in order to prevent the spread of Covid-19. I am personally going back and forth with the neutrality of the legislation and the Governor's reasoning for placing an executive order preventing the gatherings right before a Jewish holiday. The timing of the executive order is specifically targeting the Orthodox Jewish community; however, the idea of fear is neutral during the pandemic.
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