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Saturday, February 09, 2008
Courts - Residential neighborhoods, church building projects, and the RLUIPA
"The Connecticut Supreme Court Reaches the Right Decision In a Case Under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act" is the title to an article published this week on FindLaw by Law Prof. Marci Hamilton, who has written frequently in this area, about an issue that has come up often recently, including in Indianapolis neighborhoods. Her article begins:
The Connecticut Supreme Court recently decided an important religious land use case. The case, Cambodian Buddhist Society of Conn. v. Planning and Zoning Comm'n of the Town of Newtown, addressed what has become an increasingly serious problem in the era of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act: an ambitious religious project wanting to locate its facilities in a residential neighborhood.The decision is most remarkable for its solid common sense. Two of the most contentious issues in RLUIPA cases have been as follows: First, what land use laws are "individualized assessments"? This question is significant because the terms of the statute require that an extremely demanding legal test -- strict scrutiny - be applied to individualized assessments. Second, and relatedly, do special exception and special permit requirements inherently trigger RLUIPA's strict scrutiny requirement?
The Connecticut Supreme Court provided correct and sensible answers to both questions.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 9, 2008 12:23 PM
Posted to Courts in general