A group of more than 50 Republicans is urging the Supreme Court to reverse a lower court ruling that blocked a Jewish man from suing his city after he was told he could not host a prayer gathering in his private home.
The group submitted an amicus brief to the Supreme Court on Tuesday imploring judges to dismiss a federal court ruling that decided Daniel Grand, a devout Orthodox Jew, did not complete the procedural processes necessary to bring his case to court. The brief itself does not influence the case, but it allows outside parties to provide additional arguments or evidence in an attempt to persuade the court how to rule.
“This case shows just how far local governments are willing to go in riding roughshod over Free Exercise rights — including putting Mr. Grand, an observant Orthodox Jew, to the choice of being punished for praying in his home without a permit or moving out of his home entirely to obtain the required permit,” the brief states. “No American should ever be forced to make such a choice.”
The brief comes after the Supreme Court agreed to take up Grand’s case in its upcoming session starting in October. The ruling will determine whether Grand’s case can proceed.
In January 2021, Grand sent an email to a dozen friends inviting them to his home for prayer as part of a minyan, a “threshold requirement for the most sacred acts of Jewish communal worship.” However, when city officials were made aware of his plans, they issued a cease-and-desist demanding that he obtain a permit that would designate his home as a “place of religious assembly.”
Grand then canceled the religious gathering and submitted a permit application, according to court documents. But several neighbors opposed the effort because they did “not want our neighborhood labeled as Jewish.”
Grand later withdrew his application because he didn’t want to be part of an “inevitably hostile public spectacle.” But he also noted that completing the permit would have required him and his family to vacate the home after it was labeled a place of religious practice.
“Local governments can’t impose land use regulations that substantially burden religious exercise; treat religious assemblies on less than equal terms with secular ones; discriminate on the basis of religion; or totally exclude or unreasonably limit religious assemblies,” lawmakers wrote in the brief.
The Republicans argued the ruling violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which protects religious exercise from certain government actions such as zoning regulations and discrimination against religious assemblies. The RLUIPA passed Congress in a unanimous vote in 2000, which the lawmakers cited in the brief.
Lawmakers specifically opposed the federal court’s ruling that Grand must complete the permitting process before filing a lawsuit against the city, arguing courts can’t add procedural hurdles not originally included in the RLUIPA.
“Administrative processes can be long and costly — not to mention futile. Requiring religious claimants not just to initiate the process but to obtain a final decision delays their access to court while forcing them to endure the ongoing burdens on their religious exercise,” the brief states. “This Court has said that the loss of First Amendment freedoms even for a brief period of time is irreparable harm.”
“If claimants must endure that harm for weeks, months, or years depending on the whims of the local zoning board, RLUIPA’s protections are nothing but parchment promises,” the lawmakers added.
Several of the highest-ranking congressional Republicans signed on to the brief, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, among others.
Should the case go in Grand’s favor, it could expand the power of churches and synagogues to challenge zoning laws that restrict them from conducting activity in residential areas.
The Supreme Court’s next term begins the first Monday of October. An oral argument date has not yet been scheduled, but a decision in the case is expected any time before July 2027.