Kentucky AG takes state's coronavirus restrictions to Supreme Court in bid to open religious schools

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KY AG Cameron sues over school closures, which ‘infringe upon' First Amendment rights

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron tells ‘Fox & Friends’ that while he respects Gov. Andy Beshear’s ‘responsibility to keep people safe,’ the state must ‘safeguard’ religious freedoms.

Kentucky's attorney general is asking the Supreme Court to intervene in a legal battle he's waging against his governor's response to the coronavirus – the latest of multiple appeals involving religious activity and pandemic-related rules.

Monday's petition to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh comes just after a circuit court panel ruled in Gov. Andy Beshear's favor. Attorney General Daniel Cameron, a Republican, sought to block the Democratic governor from keeping private religious schools from conducting in-person classes.

“Kentuckians have a First Amendment right to exercise their faith through a religious education, and we maintain that the governor is clearly infringing upon that right by closing religious schools,” Cameron said in a press release Monday.

“The U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled that religious institutions cannot be treated different than secular activities, and we are asking the court to simply apply the same analysis to the governor’s disparate treatment of religious schools and other secular activities."

KENTUCKY AG CAMERON: SCHOOL CLOSURES 'INFRINGE UPON' FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS

Cameron's confidence in the case was likely buoyed by the Supreme Court's recent decision to halt a New York restriction on religious gatherings.

First Liberty, a religious liberty law firm, joined Cameron in both the Sixth Circuit challenge and Monday's appeal. “Even gambling parlors are still open and in-person," First Liberty senior counsel Roger Byron said. "The decision is inconsistent with Supreme Court precedent ... including a Supreme Court order issued just last week that protects in-person religious gatherings.”

The court also recently demanded New Jersey respond after a synagogue and church petitioned Justice Samuel Alito over the governor's coronavirus restrictions. On Friday, the court also rejected a petition from a Louisiana pastor challenging his state's rules.

Beshear's executive order, which was issued earlier this month, argued that the state was "experiencing a potentially catastrophic surge in COVID-19 cases" and that Kentucky law granted him the authority to close all public and private schools for grades K-12. The executive order mandated that virtual instruction begin Monday.

KENTUCKY AG FILES RESTRAINING ORDER AGAINST GOVERNOR TO BLOCK RELIGIOUS SCHOOL CLOSURES

Last week, the governor's office reported the highest number of daily COVID-19 cases for a Sunday on record. 

“I wish more than anything that we could go back to normal safely, but we can’t," Beshear said. "In order to protect our only line of health care workers and all of our fellow Kentuckians, keep gatherings small (eight people or fewer and two households at most), wear a mask, wash your hands and stay six feet apart."

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The governor added: “If we have a major surge of COVID-19 cases after Thanksgiving, our hospitals will simply not have the capacity to give everyone the care they need. Nothing is worth that risk.”

The Courier-Journal reported that Beshear's spokesperson, Crystal Staley, referred to a previous Kentucky Supreme Court decision, which unanimously upheld Beshear's power to issue executive orders during the pandemic.