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The Trump administration with no advance notice removed warnings contained in guidance for the reopening of houses of worship that singing in choirs can spread the coronavirus. Last Friday, the administration released pandemic guidance for faith communities after weeks of debate flared between the White House and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those guidelines posted on the CDC website included recommendations that religious communities “consider suspending or at least decreasing use of choir/musical ensembles and congregant singing, chanting, or reciting during services or other programming, if appropriate within the faith tradition.” (Sun and Dawsey, 5/28)

The governors of Illinois and California took somewhat different tacks Thursday night as they urged the Supreme Court not to get involved in disputes over the impact of virus-related lockdown orders on churches in their states. Hours before a deadline to respond to two churches’ request for an emergency stay to allow them to have more than 10 people in attendance at Pentecost services this Sunday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-Ill.) announced that he was dropping all legal restrictions on religious gatherings and replacing them with voluntary “guidance.” (Gerstein and Kapos, 5/28)

The Supreme Court is set to decide on a religious freedom claim from a south San Diego County church that wants an exemption from California’s COVID-19 rules, which limit large gatherings for services. Lawyers for the South Bay United Pentecostal Church in Chula Vista argue that the 1st Amendment’s protection of the “free exercise” of religion outweighs the state’s power to enforce a quarantine during a pandemic, at least when churches are subjected to stricter limits than other businesses or groups. (Savage, 5/29)