Nadler press release on RLUIPA

[Charles Williams]

Here's a link to Marci Hamilton objecting to the lack of congressional
debate on RLUIPA (RLUIPA? Try saying that 3 times real fast.)

http://www.nationalreview.com/nr_comment/nr_comment080900c.shtml

Chuck W.


-----Original Message-----
From: Volokh, Eugene <VOLOKH at MAIL.LAW.UCLA.EDU>
To: RELIGIONLAW at listserv.ucla.edu <RELIGIONLAW at listserv.ucla.edu>
Date: Monday, July 31, 2000 8:23 PM
Subject: Nadler press release on RLUIPA


>with a briefing sJuly 28, 2000
>Contact:        David Lachmann
>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                   (202)225-2322
>
>        NADLER BILL TO PRESERVE RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
>PASSES HOUSE AND SENATE
>AWAITS SIGNATURE OF PRESIDENT
>
>
>        Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-Brooklyn and Manhattan) announced
>the passage of landmark legislation to safeguard religious liberty.  The
>Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, or RLUIPA,
was
>enacted last night as Congress was proceeding to adjourn.  Passage of this
>legislation by both the House and Senate ensures that the President will
>sign it into law before the end of August.
>
>        Rep. Nadler, the lead Democratic sponsor of the legislation, said
>"This bill will provide much needed relief to religious individuals and
>institutions who have had their rights violated by zoning boards, prison
>authorities and other governmental agencies.  Communities which have
>attempted to exclude religious groups by, for example, refusing to grant a
>permit to build a house of worship, or to gather in groups and worship in a
>home, will have to have to answer to the courts for their actions."
>
>        "This legislation does not automatically grant religious
>institutions and individuals an exemption from state and local laws.  What
>it does do is provide a reasonable balance between the obligation of a
>community to control development and growth, with the rights of religious
>Americans to live in, gather in and pray in a community.  This legislation,
>which uses the same balancing test that had been used for decades to
protect
>religious freedom will strike that appropriate balance."
>
>        The House Judiciary Committee, of which Rep. Nadler is a senior
>member, held numerous hearings over several years to determine the extent
of
>the problem and create legislation responding to the facts placed before
the
>committee.  This painstaking effort convinced members of Congress that it
>was necessary, and complied with Supreme Court rulings that require
>Congressional action in this area to be remedial and in response to
>documented problems.
>
>        In the past, communities have attempted to exclude religious
>minorities, such as Orthodox Jews who must walk to Sabbath services and who
>have been excluded from communities by zoning ordinances forbidding
>residences to be used as places of worship, or Mormons who were denied a
>permit to build a temple because the zoning board said it would ruin the
>residential character of the community, even though it was at a busy
>intersection and across the street from another church.  In Boston, the
>Boston Landmarks Commission attempted to interfere with the placing of an
>alter in a church, thereby threatening to prohibit the members of the
>Catholic congregation from praying according to Church teaching.
>
>        The bill would also permit prison inmates or patients in hospitals
>to practice their religions.  Jewish prisoners would be able to get kosher
>food (as the Federal Bureau of Prison rules have long required) and gather
>in groups to pray.
>
>        "Religious liberty is at the core of the American spirit.  There
can
>be no personal freedom without freedom of conscience - it is the reason why
>many of our families came her in the first place," said Congressman Nadler.
>"By passing this legislation, I am proud to have been part of the effort to
>ensure that those rights and values remain protected in the future."
>
>        RLUIPA had the support of a large and diverse coalition of
religious
>and civil liberties organizations including the Orthodox Union, the Agudath
>Israel of America, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, The
>Christian Legal Society, the Leadership Conference of Civil Rights, the
>ACLU, the Human Rights Campaign, and the National Association of
>Evangelicals.
>-30-
>