The US Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a statement of interest supporting a church in a fight with North Carolina’s Chatham County Board of Commissioners.
DOJ’s Civil Rights Division filed the statement in the US District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina supporting a claim by Summit Church in Chapel Hill, which claimed the county commissioners violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) by denying an application to rezone nearly 100 acres of land to house a new place of worship. The church, which uses a high school for its services, is part of the Summit Church organization run by JD Greear, the former president of the Southern Baptist Convention.
“RLUIPA protects the rights of religious groups to exercise their faith free from the precise type of undue government interference exhibited here,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The Civil Rights Division is committed to defending religious liberties as our founders intended and as federal law requires.”
The county commissioners have sought to dismiss the lawsuit, alleging the zoning decision is a “legislative act” under state law and is not subject to the federal RLUIPA.
