The department noted that St. Timothy’s has been providing “meal service up to four days per week, and as many as six days per week,” for needy individuals in its community.
The city, however, recently enacted an ordinance “that prohibits the church from serving free meals to persons in need more than two days per week, subject to a discretionary permit,” the DOJ said.
In its statement of interest, filed in federal district court, the DOJ noted that the city’s new permitting system — which was enacted after neighbor complaints of the activity at the church — “effectively requires St. Timothy’s to significantly reduce the number of days it serves meals to persons in need,” which the parishioners argue “compels them to violate their religious beliefs to feed those in need” when the need exists.
RLUIPA forbids land use regulations that impose a “substantial burden” on religious entities. The city said the ordinance did not run afoul of RLUIPA and its imposition did not “substantially burden” the church’s meals program. The DOJ said in its press release that it was disputing the city’s claim.
“Specifically, [the DOJ] asserts that RLUIPA’s protections apply in this context, that St. Timothy’s provision of meals to people in need is protected religious exercise, and that the city’s attempt to restrict St. Timothy’s meal service may have substantially burdened the church’s religious exercise by forcing it to violate its beliefs in order to comply with local land use laws,” the DOJ said.
The city “makes virtually no attempt to show that its meals restriction is ‘narrowly tailored’ or that it employed the least restrictive means of burdening St. Timothy’s religious exercise,” the department said in its filing.
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