WHO: ADF Senior Legal Counsel Byron Babione
WHAT: Available for media interviews following oral argument in Centro Familiar Cristiano Buenos Nuevas Christian Church v. City of Yuma
WHEN: Thursday, April 15; hearing begins at 9 a.m. PDT
WHERE: U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, James R. Browning U.S. Courthouse, 95 Seventh Street, 3rd Floor, Courtroom 2, San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO — Alliance Defense Fund Senior Legal Counsel Byron Babione will be available for media interviews following his oral argument before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in a case involving discrimination in violation of federal law against a Yuma church. The law, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, protects churches from discrimination in land use disputes with local governments.
“Churches should not be singled out for discrimination by a city’s zoning restrictions,” said Babione. “It is illegal for government officials to use broad commercial reasons to favor non-religious businesses or institutions over religious ones. The city’s decision left this small congregation high and dry with a mortgage to pay on a building the city wouldn’t let them use.”
In July 2007, Centro Familiar Cristiano Buenos Nuevas Christian Church filed an application for a permit to use its property in the Old Town District of Yuma for church services. In response, the Yuma Planning and Zoning Commission rejected the application, saying that a church did not fit with the city’s “goals” for the district even though the district is wide open to non-religious assemblies.
The commission also stated that it believed that a church would not generate tax revenue nor draw patrons to the area, ignoring the fact that church congregants attending educational and worship events throughout the week would frequent area businesses just like persons gathering for theater events that routinely take place.
In May 2008, ADF attorneys filed a lawsuit against the city. After a federal judge ruled against the church in January 2009, ADF appealed to the 9th Circuit and filed both its opening brief and reply brief last year. Two of more than 1,600 attorneys in the ADF alliance are co-counsel in the case: David Langdon, who has litigated numerous RLUIPA cases in other circuits, and Deborah Sheasby, legal counsel with the Center for Arizona Policy. ADF-allied attorney Bradley Peppo is also part of the church’s legal team.
In August 2009, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of the church and will also be arguing before the 9th Circuit Thursday.
ADF is a legal alliance of Christian attorneys and like-minded organizations defending the right of people to freely live out their faith. Launched in 1994, ADF employs a unique combination of strategy, training, funding, and litigation to protect and preserve religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage, and the family.