President Donald Trump greets Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch as Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh looks on ahead of the State of the Union address. | Mario Tama/Getty Images

Roberts’s decision is a loss for the religious right and a victory for public health. But four justices saw the case differently.

Late Friday night, the Supreme Court handed down a 5-4 decision establishing that states still have some power to regulate how many people are allowed to gather in churches during a deadly pandemic.

The case, South Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Newsom, began on May 11, when a California church sought a lower court order allowing it to hold in-person services, despite a state order requiring places of worship to hold services online to avoid spreading the coronavirus. While the case was pending before the Supreme Court, however, California relaxed its order