In Parish of Jefferson v. Daughters of St. Paul Inc. d/b/a/, Pauline Books and Media (2013), the Louisiana Appellate Court affirmed the trial court’s decision granting summary judgment in favor of the Parish of Jefferson (the “Parish”), finding that its land use ordinance did not “substantially burden” the religious exercise of Daughters of St. Paul Inc., d/b/a Pauline Books and Media (“Pauline Books”) in violation of RLUIPA.  At issue was Jefferson Parish Ordinance No. 21597, regulating the use and lease of the Parish’s rights-of-way in the Commercial Parkway Overlay Zone and establishing the appropriate compensation to be paid to the Parish by those using its rights-of-way.

Pauline Books, a non-profit corporation with a community of religious women vowing to share their religious beliefs through media, is located in the Commercial Parkway Overlay Zone.  It uses Parish land directly in front of its building for parking.  The Parish had attempted since 2002 to enter into a lease with Pauline Books for that land, but was unable to reach an agreement.  In 2008, the Parish sued Pauline Books requesting that the trial court order Pauline Books to enter into a lease pursuant to Jefferson Parish Ordinance No. 21597 and pay it $18,816 for failing to lease the property from 2003 through 2008.  In response, Pauline Books claimed that the Parish’s land use ordinance, which required it to lease the property for use as parking spaces, violated RLUIPA’s substantial burden provision.  The trial court, however, found that RLUIPA did not apply, granted summary judgment in favor of the Parish, awarded the parish $6,720 for each of the years of 2008-2012, and ordered Pauline Books to pay the Parish for any future use of the property as parking.

On appeal, the Appellate Court noted that a party claiming a violation of RLUIPA’s substantial burden provision (42 U.S.C. § 2000cc(a)(1)) must establish a prima facie case by proving that governmental action “1) imposes a substantial burden, 2) on the ‘religious exercise,’ 3) of a person, institution or assembly.”  If a plaintiff is able to establish a prima facie case, the burden shifts to the government to prove that it has a compelling governmental interest to impose the substantial burden on religious exercise and has done so through the least restrictive means possible.

Pauline Books claimed that the land use ordinance imposed a substantial burden on its religious exercise by making the use of its building “effectively impractical,” as the choice of leasing the right-of-way from the Parish or forfeiting the use of the right-of-way “brings significant pressure that directly coerces it to conform its behavior or effectively bars it from using its building on the property in the exercise of its religion.”  Pauline Books further alleged that it would be forced to change its religious behavior by requiring that it either start to charge for certain services to increase its income or else decrease the services and goods it provides in accordance with its religious beliefs.  It further contended that if it did not lease the right-of-way, it would not be able to practice its religion because no one with a vehicle would be able to access its building.

The Louisiana Appellate Court affirmed the decision of the trial court.  Although the Louisiana Appellate Court concluded that Pauline Book’s use of the building was a form of religious exercise, it found that the land use ordinance did not substantially burden Pauline Books’ religious practice.  In particular, the Appellate Court found that the financial burden of leasing the right-of-way did not infringe on Pauline Books’ religious exercise.  It did not find that the “inconvenience of either having to find alternate parking around the building or having to possibly increase its income rises to the level of ‘substantial burden’ intended by RLUIPA.”  Ingress and egress to the building would not be prohibited; only parking in the spaces in front of the building would be prohibited.  Accordingly, Pauline Books failed to make out a prima facie case under RLUIPA’s substantial burden provision.

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Photo of Evan Seeman Evan Seeman

Evan J. Seeman is a lawyer in Robinson+Cole’s Hartford office and focuses his practice on land use, real estate, environmental, and regulatory matters, representing local governments, developers and advocacy groups. He has spoken and written about RLUIPA, and was a lead author of…

Evan J. Seeman is a lawyer in Robinson+Cole’s Hartford office and focuses his practice on land use, real estate, environmental, and regulatory matters, representing local governments, developers and advocacy groups. He has spoken and written about RLUIPA, and was a lead author of an amicus curiae brief at the petition stage before the United States Supreme Court in a RLUIPA case entitled City of San Leandro v. International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.

Evan serves as the Secretary/Treasurer of the APA’s Planning & Law Division. He also serves as the Chair of the Planning & Zoning Section of the Connecticut Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Section, and is the former Co-Chair of its Municipal Law Section. He has been named to the Connecticut Super Lawyers® list as a Rising Star in the area of Land Use Law for 2013 and 2014. He received his B.A. in political science and Russian studies (with honors) from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, where he was selected as the President’s Fellow in the Department of Modern Languages and Literature. Evan received his Juris Doctor at the University of Connecticut School of Law, where he served on the Connecticut Law Review. While in law school, he interned with the Connecticut Office of the Attorney General in the environmental department, and served as a judicial intern for the judges of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Court. Following law school, Evan clerked for the Honorable F. Herbert Gruendel of the Connecticut Appellate Court.

Photo of Dwight Merriam Dwight Merriam

Dwight H. Merriam founded Robinson+Cole’s Land Use Group in 1978. He represents land owners, developers, governments and individuals in land use matters, with a focus on defending governments in RLUIPA cases. Dwight is a Fellow and Past President of the American Institute of…

Dwight H. Merriam founded Robinson+Cole’s Land Use Group in 1978. He represents land owners, developers, governments and individuals in land use matters, with a focus on defending governments in RLUIPA cases. Dwight is a Fellow and Past President of the American Institute of Certified Planners, a former Director of the American Planning Association (APA), a former chair of APA’s Planning and Law Division, Immediate Past Chair of the American Bar Association’s Section of State and Local Government Law, Chair of the Institute of Local Government Studies at the Center for American and International Law, a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, a member of the Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute National Advisory Board, a Fellow of the Connecticut Bar Foundation, a Counselor of Real Estate, a member of the Anglo-American Real Property Institute, and a Fellow of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers.

He teaches land use law at the University of Connecticut School of Law and at Vermont Law School and has published over 200 articles and eight books, including Inclusionary Zoning Moves Downtown, The Takings Issue, The Complete Guide to Zoning, and Eminent Domain Use and Abuse: Kelo in Context. He is the senior co-author of the leading casebook on land use law, Planning and Control of Land Development (Eighth Edition). Dwight has written and spoken widely on how to avoid RLUIPA claims and how to successfully defend against them in court. He is currently writing a book on the subject, RLUIPA DEFENSE, for the American Bar Association.

Dwight has been named to the Connecticut Super Lawyers® list in the area of Land Use Law since 2006, is one of the Top 50 Connecticut Super Lawyers in Connecticut, and is one of the Top 100 New England Super Lawyers (Super Lawyers is a registered trademark of Key Professional Media, Inc.). He received his B.A. (cum laude) from the University of Massachusetts, his Masters of Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina, where he was the graduation speaker in 2011, and his J.D. from Yale. He is a featured speaker at many land use seminars, and presents monthly audio land use seminars for the International Municipal Lawyers Association. Dwight has been cited in the national press from The New York Times to People magazine and has appeared on NBC’s The Today Show, MSNBC and public television.

Dwight also had a career in the Navy, serving for three tours in Vietnam aboard ship, then returning to be the Senior Advisor of the Naval ROTC Unit at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill where he taught Defense Administration and Military Management as an Assistant Professor in the undergraduate and graduate curriculum in Defense Administration and Military Management. He left active duty after seven years to attend law school, but continued on for 24 more years as a reserve Surface Warfare Officer with two major commands, including that of the reserve commanding officer of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center. He retired as a Captain in 2009 after 31 years of service.