Neil Gorsuch’s monument to bad faith
By 
As bad as it is to see nihilistic indifference to a pandemic that has killed more than a million Americans directly or indirectly in the Atlantic, it’s even worse to see it in the United States Reports (although this time at least in dissent):
Their “sincere” religious objection is, of course, entirely fake. If you won’t use a medicine tested with abortion-derived fetal cell lines, you can’t practice medicine. HEK-293 has been used to test everything from aspirin to pepto-bismol to benadryl to metformin to ivermectin. https://t.co/l2YGZKPvzc— Max Kennerly (@MaxKennerly) December 13, 2021
The bad faith doesn’t end there:
Friday was three days ago. pic.twitter.com/G0M4IWbiUH— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) December 13, 2021
See, New York should have just created a scheme where anyone who refuses to take the vaccine can be sued for one million dollars in damages plus legal expenses!
And while the idea that Hochul is acting out of anti-religious animus is absurd, the same can’t be said for Neil Gorsuch:
Gorsuch last week: Liberal religions are “watered down versions” of the real thing. https://t.co/2cVX0Zk5zZ
Gorsuch this week: Saying “God wants” people to get vaccinated is unconstitutional anti-religious animus. https://t.co/tXJpHnsHdb
It’s not animus when a justice says it!— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) December 13, 2021
And as Stern says, comparing vaccine requirements to mandatory flag salutes is trivializing the pandemic just as surely as the “only rootless cosmopolit…I mean, the Professional Managerial Class thinks that a pandemic killing a 9/11 every two days and overwhelming hospitals all over the country is worth a moment’s thought” guy.
And, of course, the three justices citing some immaterial statements from New York’s governor to falsely claim anti-religious animus all joined…Trump v. Hawaii:
Gorsuch and Alito argue that governor’s political statements are enough to trigger strict scrutiny of a facially neutral policy. Where were these concerns from Gorsuch and Alito when they voted to uphold Trump’s Muslim ban?https://t.co/eZnX0a5Soe pic.twitter.com/gPYbCYIoJ5— Josh Block (@JoshABlock) December 13, 2021
This is, as Kagan said about Alito’s most recent anti-voting-rights opinion, a law-free zone.