A town in North Carolina has been caught imposing special restrictions on a church, because it’s religious, and now is being warned that its actions could put it in court.
The fight, being waged by First Liberty Institute, is over the threats from the officials in the city of Troy to a church, True Worship Ministries, that simply wants to rent temporary event space until it can transition into a permanent home.
It’s banned from doing that, according to the city, which has issued a cease-and-desist letter to the church, claiming that a city ordinance bars churches from operating – even though secular business are allowed to do exactly that.
That’s facially unlawful under the First Amendment and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, the legal team has explained. It has written to the city calling for it to withdraw its threats.
“Banning churches from the same space that any other organization or business enjoys just because it’s a church is wrong and unconstitutional,” explained Ryan Gardner, of First Liberty Institute. “The church is simply asking to be treated like any other entity or temporary renter in the area. The First Amendment and federal law protect the right of churches to operate free from unreasonable and intrusive government interference.”
John Moran, a partner at McGuireWoods, which also is working on the case, said, “A church has the same rights as any other organization or group in the city. A city using zoning ordinances to target and prevent a church from temporarily renting event space at an otherwise available venue is an act of blatant religious discrimination.”
True Worship, a Christian church, currently is renting an event space pending a move to a permanent home.
It has been renting from the Innovative Action Center, a nonprofit focused on providing a space where minority communities can gather for a variety of business or community purposes, the legal team said.
City officials have ordered that to stop.
Because “churches are not allowed to operate in the city’s Main Street zone,” the legal team explained.
“The city’s ordinances allow theaters, health clubs, libraries, museums, event and wedding venues, auditoriums, stadiums, liquor stores, and bars to operate as a matter of right, yet specifically targets and excludes churches.”
The legal warning to the city explains, “The Town’s prohibition of the Church’s temporary religious gatherings is unconstitutional under the First Amendment… It is also unlawful under RLUIPA. Should the Town continue to persist in its denial of the Church’s right to religious exercise, the Church will pursue all available legal options.”
The town, in additional to a cease-and-desist threat, “has since sent a Warning Citation threatening additional action, including daily fines and other, unspecified enforcement actions, against the church,” the lawyers explain.
In fact, the center “has the right to rent its space to religious institutions on the same terms as any other secular gathering.”
To impose such a viewpoint discrimination, the letter explains, “the town must prove its action was ‘justified by a [1] compelling state interest and [2] was narrowly tailored in pursuit of that interest.'”
“First, the Town has failed to provide any interest in prohibiting the Church’s religious gatherings, much less a compelling one. The only interest conveyed by the Demand Letter is in complying with the Town’s ordinances,” Troy officials were informed.
And they have failed to offer any “explanation as to how eliminating the Church’s worship services furthers that goal.”
And, it said, “Even assuming the Town’s interest was compelling—which it is not—it cannot show how a prohibition on the Church operating at the Property is narrowly tailored to advance that interest.”
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[ H/T WorldNetDaily ]
