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Church Loses Challenge To County Zoning Ordinances

By Howard M. Friedman

In McGuire v. Clackamas County Counsel, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5521 (D OR, Jan. 19, 2011), an Oregon federal district court adopted a magistrate's recommendations (2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 140026, Nov. 10, 2010), and dismissed a free exercise challenge to the zoning laws of Clackamas County, Oregon. The county insisted that the provision of services to the homeless, such as car and home repair assistance, and allowing the homeless to split wood and sell it, qualified the Assembly Church as a business so that the Church needed to obtain a permit and comply with a zoning ordinances. Plaintiffs argued unsuccessfully that they formed the Church as a "closed church" with the intent that they would receive no benefits from the government and, in turn, would not be contacted by, or be subject to the control of, the government.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on January 23, 2011 (boomark / email).