Just think - in only a few short years, we'll probably have a ruling from the Supremes on this....

From the Appeal-Democrat (California):

http://www.appeal-democrat.com/articles/2005/01/18/news/local_news/news4.txt

Sides line up over temple

By Harold Kruger/Appeal-Democrat

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

The California State Association of Counties and the League of California Cities are supporting Sutter County in its challenge to a federal law that regulates local land-use decisions about religious buildings.

The county wants the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to declare the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, or RLUIPA, unconstitutional.

In December 2003, county supervisors decided to appeal U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton's decision in favor of the Guru Nanak Sikh Society.

Karlton said the supervisors violated the federal law by denying the Sikh group's use permit application for a temple on South George Washington Boulevard.

The case is still pending before the federal appeals court.

Meanwhile, CSAC and the League of California Cities have filed a "friend of the court" brief backing Sutter County.

On the other side, the Seventh-Day Adventist Church State Council, the Liberty Council and five Jewish groups filed a brief supporting RLUIPA.

In their brief, CSAC and the League contend that Karlton made it too easy for the Sikhs and other religious groups to challenge local land-use decisions.

"The result of this opinion is that cities and counties will often be faced with having to prove a compelling governmental interest advanced in the least restrictive means for everyday land use decisions," CSAC and the League said.

  Karlton's opinion "effectively renders all permit denials a violation of RLUIPA," they said.

The seven religious groups supporting the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act said in their brief that Congress, when it passed the law in 2000, "had ample evidence from which it could reasonably conclude that religious groups were suffering from discrimination in the land use context at the hands of local governments."

And, they said, "The evidence presented to Congress showed that land use laws are often manipulated to discriminate against religious groups."

In the Sutter County case, the Planning Commission in April 2002 approved a conditional use permit for the temple at 1298 S. George Washington Blvd., a 29-acre parcel about a half-mile west of the Yuba City line.

Neighbors appealed. Supervisors rejected the permit, calling the temple "leapfrog development" and in conflict with surrounding uses.

Appeal-Democrat reporter Harold Kruger can be reached at 749-4717. You may e-mail him at hkruger@appeal-democrat.com.