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Freedom Baptist Church v. Township of Middletown
Freedom Baptist Church is a small religious community of about 25 members who live in and around Middletown Township in Pennsylvania, just west of Philadelphia. In the fall of 2000, Pastor Chris Keay began a search for suitable space to hold worship services in Middletown Township, and learned of space available in an office building on New Middletown Road in Media. The church soon signed a lease on the first floor of the building (a dentist's office is upstairs), and began holding worship services in October.
About half a year later, on April 5, 2001, one of the building's owners was contacted by Township Zoning Officer Jack McKeown, and was told that the church's use of the property violated local zoning ordinances. The office building is located in an area zoned O-1, where religious worship is not permitted under any circumstances. The church and the building owners then filed an application with the ZHB for a use variance to allow the church to continue using the building for religious worship. The ZHB held a hearing and denied the application on August 22, 2001, but failed to comply with a state law requiring submission of findings of fact and conclusions of law at the same time a decision is entered. They were finally issued much later, on November 28, more than a month after Freedom Baptist Church had filed its lawsuit challenging the denial on October 22.
The lawsuit charges that the Township has violated the U.S. and Pennsylvania Constitutions and multiple provisions of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA).
The Township zoning ordinance, adopted in 1986, creates 17 zoning districts and three "overlay" districts. Religious worship is not a permitted use in any of them. (Uses that are permitted in the O-1 district include schools of all sorts, including nursery, kindergarten, elementary, junior and senior high schools, all of which are likely to accommodate far more people at any one time than Freedom Baptist Church.) In districts where religious worship is an "allowed" use, it is a conditional use subject to a variety of requirements that make it next to impossible for a new church to locate within the Township. Where the minimum land requirement for schools is only two acres, for example, the requirement for churches is five acres. Such requirements "have the effect of making it virtually impossible for a new church to locate within the Township, thereby burdening and preventing religious worship," according to the complaint.
On January 15, 2002 the Township moved to dismiss the complaint, contending that RLUIPA is unconstitutional, and that the constitutional claims were improperly pled.
On February 6, 2002 The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty joined the case on behalf of Freedom Baptist Church.
On February 22, 2002 the church filed a response to the township's motion to dismiss, including a detailed defense of the constitutionality of RLUIPA.
Also on February 22, 2002 attorneys for the U.S. Department of Justice moved to intervene, and filed a Memorandum of Law in support of the constitutionality of RLUIPA.
On March 12, 2002 attorneys for the Township filed a Memorandum of Law in opposition to the constitutionality of RLUIPA.
On March 28, 2002, Judge Stewart Dalzell ordered oral arguments on the constitutionality of RLUIPA. The two and a half hour hearing was held on April 26. Becket Fund attorney Anthony Picarello and Justice Department attorney James Todd, Jr. presented arguments on behalf of the constitutionality of the law, while Township attorney Jennifer Holsten argued against it.
On May 3, 2002, The Becket Fund filed a supplemental memorandum of law on a last-minute Establishment Clause objection to RLUIPA raised by the Township in its reply brief.
On May 8, 2002, Judge Dalzell issued a 43 page opinion upholding the constitutionality of RLUIPA and certifying the case for immediate appeal to the Third Circuit.
On November 15, 2002, Judge Dalzell signed and entered a consent judgment in which Middletown agreed to "revise its zoning ordinances to bring them into compliance with the current United States and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Constitutions and laws, including but not limited to the Religious Land Use and Institutitionalzied Persons Act of 2000." The Township also agreed to pay $10,000 in the church's attorneys' fees. The settlement ends the case, and precludes a review by the Third Circuit, preserving the precedential force of the court's ruling upholding the constitutionality of RLUIPA.
(Freedom Baptist Church v. Township of Middletown, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, No. 01-CV-5345)
Articles & News Items
- "Middletown, PA settles with Freedom Baptist Church," November 30, 1999
- "Judge will hear oral arguments on constitutionality of religious land use law," March 28, 2002
- "Religious Land Use law does not violate Establishment Clause, brief says," May 3, 2002
- "U.S. District Court in Philadelphia upholds constitutionality of RLUIPA," May 8, 2002