In a press statement released on Oct. 8, the diocese said that the decision to restrict attendance at Mass to as few as 10 people in the worst-affected zip codes is a violation of the First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has administered the Nonprofit Security Grant Program since its creation by Congress in 2005. The program initially received $25 million in funding, and Congress provided $90 million for the program in fiscal year 2020.

George Weigel warns that the 2020 Democratic platform “threatens to rinse out religious freedom and reduce it to a question of personal lifestyle choice.”

Church officials' concerns stem from draft amendments to Russia's 1997 Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations, which would bar "clergy who receive religious education abroad" from ministering unless they obtain "recertification within a Russian religious organization" and "receive additional professional education."

"Any religious adherent can be a victim," he said, and the oppressor can be "whoever has the power of the state behind them."

Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice told Breed that "San Francisco’s treatment of places of worship raises serious concerns about religious freedom."