Rev. Kevin Robinson, pastor of St. Anthony of Padua R.C. Church in North Caldwell, and Rabbi Knopfler of a small, 30-member Jewish congregation in Lakewood, sought a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction against Gov. Philip Murphy’s executive orders limiting religious congregations. The governor seeks to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus sweeping the state, country, and world. Rejected at the district court and the Third Circuit the two clergymen petitioned the United States Supreme Court in an “emergency application for an injunction pending appellate review”.

The pastor and the rabbi complain that “[u]nder the New Jersey governor’s web of COVID-19 pandemic regulations, imposed solely by his will, houses of worship are strictly limited to the lesser of 25% of capacity or 150 people, but, strangely enough, never fewer than 10 people even if greater than 25% of capacity.” The minimum allowance of ten is an accommodation to Jewish tradition that requires ten men to form a minyan.