A Few Minutes with… Ron Coleman

But while Agudath Israel issued a sharp rebuke — calling the limit of ten individuals per shul “appalling” — the group’s call for a temporary restraining order on Cuomo’s executive order was dismissed by a federal judge.

Although Cuomo has recently modified his plan, calling for a “block-by-block micro-cluster strategy” instead of targeting zip codes with rising infection numbers, a number of new legal challenges are going ahead. The author of one, attorney Ron Coleman, an expert on the First Amendment and intellectual property rights, shared details of the case, as well as his view on conservatives’ latest struggle with social media platforms’ bias.

After a judge rejected Agudah’s pre-Yom Tov case, what grounds do you have to think yours will be more successful?

Look, the Agudah was in a bind. It was clear that they had to act before Yom Tov to get an immediate order preventing the restrictions. So they were asking the judge to make a big finding of infringement on religious rights, and seeking a temporary restraining order.

They were unlikely to clear the bar to prove that there was religious discrimination, given that we’re in the middle of a pandemic — the judge said that the numbers don’t lie — and the state has a strong presumption of good faith.