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Save the Graves: O'Hare Expansion Threatens Sacred Cemeteries
On July 27, 2005, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved the City of Chicago’s O’Hare Modernization Plan (OMP), the City of Chicago's plan to expand O’Hare Airport that includes the seizure and desecration of 1,300 gravesites in St. Johannes Cemetery, which was established in 1849 on private land owned by St. John’s Church of Christ. The FAA's report appears to spare Rest Haven Cemetery, another historic, religious cemetery threatened by the expansion project, but access to the cemetery will be limited.
The FAA report admits that seizing and desecrating the cemeteries would ‘substantially burden’ religious exercise, but argues that the ‘compelling interest’ of improving flight schedules justifies that burden. This, of course, is inconsistent with what courts throughout the country require to satisfy the “strict scrutiny” standard of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and the First Amendment.
Established in 1849, St. Johannes cemetery is an active, private, religious cemetery where 1,300 members of St. John's Church and their relatives are buried, and where living members plan to be buried. One woman already owns a plot next to her husband's, with an engraved tombstone that already has her name, but omits only her date of death. Among those buried at St. Johannes are heroes of the civil war, members of the Underground Railroad, and many families that hosted President Lincoln during his frequent visits to his home state.
Aside from the historical significance, the desecration of the cemetery would be a savage affront to the congregation's beliefs. The congregation believes that to remove the remains of their fellow believers from the place they have been laid at St. Johannes to await the day of resurrection would be a desecration of holy ground. Disturbance of the believers laid to rest is not something that they believe should ever happen other than at the direction of God himself on his appointed day of resurrection.
When Chicago expanded O’Hare in 1950, the City agreed that St. Johannes Cemetery would remain untouched, and it was specifically excluded from the plans for O’Hare Airport at that time. In reliance upon Chicago continuing to respect the sanctity of St. Johannes, the congregation continued to bury its members there for over fifty years. But since the day Chicago publicly unveiled its OMP in 2001, Chicago and Mayor Daley have engaged in a relentless campaign designed to seize, desecrate, and destroy St. Johannes. Specifically, Chicago submitted to the FAA a design for expanding O’Hare that calls for the destruction of St. Johannes and use of this consecrated ground for part of a runway.
When the Church and its members invoked the provisions of Illinois laws that protect religious (and other) cemeteries from seizure and desecration, Mayor Daley successfully lobbied the Illinois legislature to pass the O’Hare Modernization Act (OMA) to quash their existing legal rights as a cemetery, and as a religious institution. The OMA amends state law to strip St. Johannes uniquely of legal protections from seizure and desecration that all other religious institutions and cemeteries in the state currently enjoy, thereby removing all state law barriers to the City's plan.
Instead of using its oversight authority to stop the seizure and desecration of the religious cemeteries, the FAA has thus far aided and encouraged Chicago’s plan. For example, the FAA has already provided Chicago millions of taxpayer dollars to pursue its plan to expand O’Hare by destroying St. Johannes.
The FAA declared on July 27, 2005 that Chicago's OMP may go forward, even though the FAA concedes that the desecration of St. Johannes will substantially burden the Church’s religious exercise. Though the report suggests that Rest Haven Cemetery will be spared, access to it will be severely limited.
On September 30, 2005, the FAA issued its Record of Decision (ROD) approving the OMP. An emergency motion to stay the commecement of construction until the First Amendment and Federal Law issues are fully addressed in court has been filed before the FAA and a federal appellate court in DC.
The Becket Fund represents St. John's Church of Christ, St. Johannes Cemetery, Rest Haven Cemetery, and others in ongoing litigation to block the seizure and desecration of these historic and sacred grounds.
Resources & Documents
- Sept 29, 2005 Letter to President Bush (PDF, 4KB)