U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto of the Eastern District of New York on Tuesday issued a permanent injunction against the enforcement of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's executive order limiting attendance at houses of worship in areas designated "red" and "orange" for their relatively high COVID-19 rates.

The order comes after the U.S. Supreme Court in November reversed earlier rulings by Matsumoto and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which had each allowed Cuomo to proceed with the limitations as a COVID-19 prevention measure. The case returned to Matsumoto's courtroom after the Second Circuit, on remand, found that both the fixed-capacity and percentage-capacity limits for houses of worship were subject to strict scrutiny.