The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit recently clarified how to determine whether a substantial burden on religious exercise exists for purposes of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons...more
2/5/2024
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Equal Protection ,
Fair Housing Act (FHA) ,
Fourteenth Amendment ,
Land Use Restrictions ,
Religious Institutions ,
RLUIPA ,
Statutory Violations ,
Substantial Burden ,
Zoning Board of Appeals ,
Zoning Laws
The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit recently considered a long-running religious land use dispute involving the Thai Meditation Association of Alabama (TMAA) and the city of Mobile, Alabama. The...more
The Fourth Circuit has ruled against the Alive Church of the Nazarene’s claims that Prince William County, Virginia, violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLIUPA) by denying the Church the...more
On December 30, 2022, a district court dismissed a Catholic high school’s RLUIPA challenge, granting summary judgment on all claims in favor of the City of Madison, Wisconsin and various other city officials (the City). As...more
A district court has ruled that the City of Meriden, Connecticut (the City) discriminated against Omar Islamic Center Inc. following the City’s denial of the Islamic Center’s application to move its mosque to another...more
A federal court in Florida recently ruled that Pass-A-Grille Beach Community Church, Inc. (Church) was likely to prevail on its RLUIPA substantial burden claim challenging the City of St. Pete Beach’s enforcement of parking...more
RLUIPA’s equal terms provision requires municipalities to treat religious uses no worse than analogous secular assembly uses. Generally, if a municipality wants to either prohibit religious uses from a certain zone or...more
Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit issued an important decision regarding RLUIPA’s substantial burden and equal terms provisions. ...more
12/16/2019
/ Appeals ,
Equal Protection ,
Free Exercise Clause ,
Municipalities ,
Religious Discrimination ,
Religious Institutions ,
Religious Schools ,
RLUIPA ,
School Sports ,
Substantial Burden ,
Zoning Laws
Wayside Chapel Evangelical Free Church is suing Castle Hills, Texas for denying its application for a special use permit for property located at 113 Ivywood Circle. The Church claims that the extra space is needed to...more
Last week, the United States Supreme Court denied Tree of Life Christian Schools’ petition for certiorari involving its longstanding religious dispute with Upper Arlington, Ohio (City). In 2009, Tree of Life purchased a...more
A United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee recently ruled that Layman Lessons Church and Welcome Baptist Church, Inc. (“Layman Lessons”) can move forward with most, but not all, of its religious...more
4/29/2019
/ Equal Protection ,
First Amendment ,
Free Exercise Clause ,
Homeless Issues ,
Mootness ,
Religious Discrimination ,
Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) ,
Religious Institutions ,
RLUIPA ,
State and Local Government ,
Substantial Burden
Clifton, New Jersey has agreed to pay a Jewish congregation $2.5 million and will allow it to construct a synagogue. Congregation Shomrei Torah/Tiferes Boruch asked for permission to build a synagogue 11 years ago. The...more
Recently, the Department of Justice reported that it has closed its investigation into whether the City of Coconut Creek’s zoning code violated RLUIPA’s equal terms provision by treating secular assembly uses better than...more
A federal court in Minnesota has issued a preliminary injunction in favor of a local church ministering to the homeless, ruling that the church was likely to prevail on its RLUIPA substantial burden and First Amendment free...more
8/14/2018
/ Article III ,
Equal Protection ,
First Amendment ,
Fourteenth Amendment ,
Free Exercise Clause ,
Free Speech ,
Homeless Discrimination ,
Homeless Issues ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Pleading Standards ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Religious Discrimination ,
Religious Institutions ,
Ripeness ,
RLUIPA ,
Standing ,
Substantial Burden
A federal court in Nevada has ruled that the denial of a church’s special use permit application to develop property with a house of worship did not violate RLUIPA’s substantial burden provision, the Equal Protection Clause,...more
The Borough of Allenhurst, New Jersey has settled a lawsuit against an Orthodox Jewish group just one day after the group filed suit in federal court alleging violations of RLUIPA’s unreasonable limits and exclusions and...more
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has ruled that Ventura County, California’s conditional use permit (CUP) scheme for “temporary outdoor” events is an unconstitutional prior restraint on free speech. ...more
A federal court has issued another decision in the longstanding RLUIPA battle between the City of Upper Arlington, Ohio (“City”) and Tree of Life Christian Schools (“TLC”). For a second time, a federal court in the Southern...more
The City of Brier, Washington (City) has prevailed over claims that it violated the Religious Land Use & Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) and other federal law in a dispute over a variance application to construct a...more
Earlier this month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a district court’s issuance of a temporary restraining order prohibiting the enforcement of Executive Order 13769 – “Protecting The Nation From...more
2/21/2017
/ Appeals ,
Burwell v Hobby Lobby ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Discrimination ,
Due Process ,
Equal Protection ,
Establishment Clause ,
Executive Orders ,
First Amendment ,
Foreign Nationals ,
Free Exercise Clause ,
Government Investigations ,
Immigrants ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Political Campaigns ,
Refugees ,
Religious Discrimination ,
Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) ,
Restraining Orders ,
RLUIPA ,
Travel Ban ,
Trump Administration
Late last month, a federal district court in Pennsylvania ruled that directional signs to a church, which contained images of a cross and bible, did not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
The...more
The Thai Meditation Association of Alabama and several individual plaintiffs (the “Center”) have filed suit against the City of Mobile, Alabama, its Planning Commission, and City Council (“Mobile”) after the Center was...more
We don’t often report on RLUIPA prisoner cases (recall, that RLUIPA applies in the land use and prison contexts). But a recent federal decision in Nebraska – Cavanaugh v. Bartelt (D. Nebraska 2016), is just too good to pass...more
Rabbi Moshe Gourarie and the Chabad Jewish Center of Toms River Inc. (the “Center”) have sued the Township of Toms River, New Jersey, and the Township’s Zoning Board of Adjustment (“ZBA”) in the Federal District Court of New...more
The Freedom From Religion Foundation sued the Morris County Board of Chosen Freeholders, the Morris County Preservation Trust Fund Review Board, and Joseph A. Kovalcik, Jr. (“Defendants”) in New Jersey Superior Court claiming...more