The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a statement of interest in support of a religious discrimination lawsuit initiated by former Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear's The Summit Church in North Carolina.
This filing comes just over two weeks after attorneys for the Chatham County Board of Commissioners requested the court to dismiss the lawsuit. The DOJ's statement, filed last Friday, supports the church's claim that the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) protects against the county’s alleged discriminatory zoning decision.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division stated, “RLUIPA protects the rights of religious groups to exercise their faith free from the precise type of undue government interference exhibited here. The Civil Rights Division is committed to defending religious liberties as our founders intended and as federal law requires.”
According to the DOJ, RLUIPA is a federal law that “guards individuals and religious institutions from unduly burdensome, unequal, or discriminatory land use regulations.”
In the lawsuit, Summit Church claims that members of the county board unlawfully rejected its application to rezone nearly 100 acres of land for the church's Chapel Hill campus, asserting that the board's decision violated its “civil rights as enshrined in the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and codified in the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.”
The church is seeking a preliminary injunction and an order to compel the county to approve its rezoning request. The congregation, which previously worshipped at East Chapel Hill High School, has grown and requires additional space to accommodate its needs. The lawsuit contends that the county treated the church differently than nonreligious assemblies, which violates RLUIPA.
In response to the lawsuit, the county has sought dismissal of the complaint with prejudice, citing several defenses, including governmental immunity. Chatham County officials argue that their zoning decision is a “legislative act” under state law and is therefore not subject to RLUIPA. However, the church's attorney, Keith E. Richardson, countered in response to the county's motion that the rezoning decision is administrative and thus subject to RLUIPA.
Just over a year ago, the Justice Department sent a letter to state, county, and municipal leaders nationwide to remind them of their obligations under RLUIPA, emphasizing the requirement that land use regulations treat religious assemblies and institutions at least as well as nonreligious assemblies and institutions.
