Court: N.Y. Town's Opposition to Church Violated Federal Law

[kpete]

Source: New York Law Journal

Court: N.Y. Town's Opposition to Church Violated Federal Law

Mark Hamblett

New York Law Journal

August 19, 2010


A Westchester County, N.Y., town violated a federal act barring religious discrimination in land use decisions by putting one obstacle after another in the path of a Pentecostal congregation's plans to build a new church to accommodate its growing flock, according to a federal judge.

Southern District Judge Stephen C. Robinson ruled that the town of Greenburgh used fire, safety and traffic concerns as pretexts to derail a project proposed by the Fortress Bible Church that the town supervisor and some board members had wanted to kill from the outset.

In a 206-page decision last week summing up his findings after a 26-day bench trial, Robinson also said the town would be liable for an unspecified amount of money damages and was subject to sanctions for the deliberate destruction of documents in the decade-long fight over the church.

The judge said in Fortress Bible Church v. Feiner, 03 Civ. 4235, that the town's "purported concerns were unsupported, if not wholly fabricated," and therefore it had violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), 42 U.S.C. §2000cc.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode42/usc_sec_42_00002000--cc000-.html

Read more: http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202470575438

[ejpoeta]

1. i can only hope the verdict would be the same no matter what kind of

church or synogogue or mosque it was.

[KamaAina]

2. 51 Park Place, New York also falls within the Southern District.

We shall see...

[SkyDaddy7]

3. They have blocked to Mosque here in Ga

One I followed and the reason they gave for blocking it was "increased traffic"...WHATEVER! There are MEGA CHURCHES everywhere down here & if you happen to be near one when they let out you are screwed!

[ejpoeta]

4. that's what i thought.