Too often, religious schools and their students face discrimination. Some local officials even try to keep them out of their backyard by abusing zoning laws.
That’s why one the most important of our legal protections for religion is the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, or RLUIPA, which prevents cities and towns from discriminating against religious organizations in land use and zoning decisions. I know this group—and Nathan in particular—played an important role in getting RLUIPA enacted.
I was a Senator at the time, and I remember that Congress heard testimony that although Jews make up two percent of the population, they made up more that 20 percent of all reported zoning decisions. Sadly, that has not changed much. About 15 percent of our open RLUIPA investigations involve synagogues.
In fact, I am announcing today that the Department has filed a RLUIPA lawsuit against a town in New Jersey for denying approval to an Orthodox Jewish synagogue.
We allege that over an eight-year period the town stopped every effort by the group to purchase an alternative worship site, and then denied it permission to expand on its property.
In order to enhance our ability to conduct RLUIPA investigations, I am also announcing today the Place to Worship Initiative. Under this initiative, we will seek to raise awareness about legal protections under RLUIPA through public events across America and through better training for our federal prosecutors.
I believe that these efforts will help us bring more cases under RLUIPA—and it will help us win. I am hopeful that, as more people learn their rights, they will speak out where discrimination exists and prevent further discrimination from happening.
Religious freedom means not only freedom from government intrusion, but also freedom from violence. The first civil right is the right to be safe.
Westgate?
ReplyDeleteDoes religious freedom also include freedom from mesirah?
ReplyDelete