I was thinking about the highlands bill and how state law and federal law might interact regarding the 300 foot buffer requirement. The issue is can state law (highlands law) supercede RLUIPA. The common sense answer seems to be "yes". An analogous example would be CC buying a large bus and believing that they could best pray to God going 90 mph on Route 80. Would the state speed limit law prevent their exercise of religious freedom?
I would hope the answer is yes. I would also imagine the reason would be that state law can supercede federal law when public health and safety is jeopardized. I would imagine that protecting our water resources would also come under the category of public health and safety.
My thoughts are that it seems to me that logic and emotion don't always go hand-in-hand when it comes to deciding what's the best way to handle conflicting situations.
Hopefully logic will prevail in this matter. It only makes sense that the public safety concern will override RLUIPA in this matter. Kind of like the conflict between the right of free speech vs. public safefy if one were yell "fire" in a crowded theatre.
