In a speech Thursday night, Justice Samuel Alito said the coronavirus pandemic has resulted in “previously unimaginable restrictions on individual liberty” and that religious believers are under attack for opposing same-sex marriage, according to multiple reports. 

Alito made the remarks, which largely echoed his sentiments in past written rulings, in an address on Zoom to the Federalist Society, a conservative legal organization. He did not weigh in on President Donald Trump’s refusal to accept last week’s election results while waging numerous legal battles. 

"We have never before seen restrictions as severe, extensive and prolonged," Alito said, adding that the pandemic has served as a “sort of constitutional stress test.”

The conservative justice insisted he was not criticizing state and local officials for ordering restrictions, saying, “I’m a judge, not a policymaker.” 

Alito, who also said he did not want to diminish the severity of the pandemic, signaled he was particularly concerned with restrictions on religious gatherings. He was in the minority this summer when the Supreme Court upheld emergency orders limiting the size of in-person worship services in California and Nevada. He said he didn’t believe it made sense that Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak capped church attendance at 50 while allowing casinos to reopen at 50% capacity.

“Forget about worship and head for the slot machine or maybe a Cirque du Soleil show,” Alito said, according to The Washington Post.  

It’s a matter that is before the court now. On Thursday, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn asked the Supreme Court to block New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's executive order limiting the number of people at church services during the pandemic.

Alito said he is concerned about the future of religious liberty in general, saying it “ is fast becoming a disfavored right."

“For many today, religious liberty is not a cherished freedom,” he said. “It’s often just an excuse for bigotry and can’t be tolerated, even when there is no evidence that anybody has been harmed. ... The question we face is whether our society will be inclusive enough to tolerate people with unpopular religious beliefs.”

Alito discussed the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges ruling in 2015 that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, a case in which he wrote a dissenting opinion. He told the Federalist Society that he predicted then that those who believe marriage should be between a man and a woman might be “labeled as bigots and treated as such by governments, employers and schools.”

"That is just what has come to pass," Alito said.

“Until very recently, that’s what the vast majority of Americans thought. Now, it’s considered bigotry,” he added.

Alito also voiced his anger about a brief filed by five Democratic senators filed in a gun rights case last year, in which they wrote that if the justices did not dismiss the case the public would believe the court was motivated by politics. The senators also wrote that the "Supreme Court is not well" and might need to be "restructured."

“It was an affront to the Constitution and the rule of law,” Alito said, according to Politico. “It is ... wrong for anyone, including members of Congress, to try to influence our decisions by anything other than legal argumentation. That sort of thing has often happened in countries governed by power, not law.”