The small town of Troy, Idaho, is facing a major legal problem.
Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against it based on religious freedom concerns.
The Justice Department alleges that town leaders are discriminating against a local evangelical church by unnecessarily preventing it from holding worship services in Troy’s business district.
Troy officials say they’re enforcing zoning law, not engaging in discrimination.
“The fact that it was this church had zero to do with the denial,” said Todd Richardson, Troy city attorney, to the Yakima Herald-Republic.
New religious freedom lawsuit
The religious freedom lawsuit filed by the Justice Department centers on Christ Church, an evangelical Christian house of worship that holds services in both Troy and Moscow, Idaho.
In late 2022, a leader at Christ Church sought permission from Troy to hold worship services at a former bank building downtown. The congregation needed a conditional use permit because the building was zoned for business, not religious events.
According to the Justice Department lawsuit, the city regularly allows noncommercial activity in its downtown business district, as well as noncommercial redevelopment. But many residents spoke against Christ Church’s plan, including some who complained about the congregation’s beliefs and practices, and Troy leaders denied the conditional use permit.
“In its denial of the application, the city said the ‘great majority of the city residents’ opposed approving the permit,” the Yakima Herald-Republic reported.
The City Council reaffirmed the denial on appeal.
Religious land use law
In the new lawsuit, the Justice Department argues that Troy violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, or RLUIPA, when it denied the conditional use permit.
The denial stemmed from animus toward the congregation, not legitimate governmental concerns, the lawsuit alleges.
“RLUIPA unequivocally forbids local governments from deciding zoning matters based on their dislike of certain religious groups,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in a statement.
The lawsuit also accuses Troy of treating faith-based requests for zoning law adjustments differently than secular ones.
“The City Code, on its face, and in the C-1 zoning district where the Subject Property is located, treats religious assembly uses on less than equal terms with nonreligious assemblies or institutions,” the suit says.
In an interview with Fox News, Richardson, the Troy city attorney, rejected the Justice Department’s claims and criticized it for using “bullying tactics.”
“The case isn’t about religion, he said, but about the city preserving the two-block downtown area as a commercial district and resisting the influx of as many as 15% of its population gathering at one location and putting a ‘strain on the city’s limited resources,’” Fox News reported.
Christ Church controversy
Although Christ Church is a small congregation in a rural area of Idaho, this month is not the first time it has made national news.
In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, some of the church’s members were arrested for violating Moscow’s mask mandate while singing hymns and protesting the city’s pandemic-related public health rules.
President Donald Trump defended their protest in a social media post at the time, according to Idaho News 6.