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Pepperdine Caruso Regulation’s new non secular liberty clinic has engaged its first direct illustration of shoppers:
Pepperdine Caruso Regulation’s Hugh and Hazel Darling Basis Spiritual Liberty Clinic, in collaboration with the First Liberty Institute and Jones Day, has filed a federal lawsuit in opposition to Morris County, New Jersey on behalf of The Mendham Methodist Church and The Zion Lutheran Church Lengthy Valley in the US District Courtroom for the District of New Jersey.
The go well with challenges Morris County’s coverage of excluding homes of worship from the Morris County Historic Preservation Belief Fund, which grants public funds to organizations and entities whose functions embrace historic preservation. Previous grant recipients have included a neighborhood theater, a Masonic lodge, and a restaurant. In the meantime, two centuries-old church buildings with a longstanding neighborhood presence are excluded from the historic preservation program merely for being faith-based establishments.
“This case is vital as a result of we aren’t asking that church buildings get something past what some other organizations would obtain –– we simply ask that church buildings with substantial pursuits in historic preservation be thought-about equally for a similar usually accessible funds that non-religious organizations obtain,” mentioned Tiereney Souza, a second-year regulation scholar at Pepperdine Caruso Regulation who helped write the criticism.
Morris County beforehand had a long-standing observe of offering historic preservation grants to homes of worship, however the New Jersey Supreme Courtroom in 2018 dominated that this observe violated the New Jersey Structure. The ruling precludes non secular establishments from benefiting from the grant program, and Morris County carried out the ruling via a coverage change that prohibits non secular establishments from collaborating in this system.
However within the time because the New Jersey Supreme Courtroom’s opinion, the U.S. Supreme Courtroom has dominated that the U.S. Structure prohibits the exclusion of non secular establishments from usually accessible public funding applications merely due to their non secular character or non secular actions. States and native governments that select to supply a usually accessible public profit — equivalent to historic preservation grants — can’t exclude an otherwise-qualified applicant solely as a result of the applicant occurs to be, and operates as, a home of worship.
“This case seeks to vindicate the rights of those historic church buildings,” mentioned Jack Walecki, a second-year scholar at Pepperdine. “The Supreme Courtroom’s current opinions make it clear that the federal government can’t exclude non secular establishments from public grants, like those right here, solely due to the establishments’ non secular character or actions.”
The criticism particulars the 2 church buildings’ historic presence in Morris County, which had been established within the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Every church now continues to play a job within the Morris County neighborhood, together with by internet hosting secular applications and teams.
“It was an honor to work with the attorneys at Jones Day and First Liberty, and the expertise of getting ready a criticism, from preliminary analysis to writing, has been invaluable as a regulation scholar,” mentioned Ellie Ritter, additionally a second-year scholar at Pepperdine Caruso Regulation.
The criticism was ready by First Liberty Institute attorneys Jeremy Dys and Pepperdine Caruso Regulation alumnus Ryan Gardner (JD ’16), Jones Day attorneys Noel Francisco, Megan Owen, and Ben Aguiñaga, and Pepperdine Spiritual Liberty Clinic director and professor Eric Rassbach and college students Ritter, Souza, and Walecki.
The clinic at Pepperdine Caruso Regulation was established in January 2022 with the assistance of a transformational reward from the Hugh and Hazel Darling Basis. As a part of the college’s Nootbaar Institute for Regulation, Faith, and Ethics, the Spiritual Liberty Clinic explores enduring questions regarding how civil governments deal with the non secular beliefs, expressions, and establishments of their residents and residents. The clinic gives college students the chance to work on cutting-edge non secular liberty points in partnership with main nationwide litigators.
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Editor’s Observe: If you need to obtain a weekly electronic mail every Sunday with hyperlinks to the religion posts on TaxProf Weblog, electronic mail me right here.
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2023/04/pepperdine-caruso-laws-new-religious-clinic-engages-its-first-direct-representation-of-clients.html
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