A group of citizens in Murfreesboro, Tennessee have filed a petition for certiorari with the United States Supreme Court challenging the 2013 ruling by the Tennessee Court of Appeals that the Rutherford County Planning Commission did not violate Tennessee’s Open Meetings Act before approving May 2010 plans for the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro to construct a mega-mosque.  For a detailed history of this case, read our 2012 post here.

While we still need to digest the petition for certiorari before reporting back, we leave you with the petitioners’ preface to the questions on which they seek the Supreme Court’s review:

Periodic warning from the U.S. Department of Homeland security of locally generated terrorist attacks compel a review by this Court to resolve due process issues raising conflicts between the Religious Land Use And Institutionalized Persons Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000cc, et seq. (“RLUIPA”), and the public right to open government affirmed by the State Meetings Act.  This case presents that conflict in a case acknowledged at all levels to be of great public interest, where there is a risk of terrorism officially and publicly identified in a prosecution by the U.S. Justice Department.  On May 29, 2013, the Tennessee Court of Appeals issued its Order, challenged herein, reversing the June 1, 2012 Order of the Tennessee Chancery Court (“Chancery Order”) declaring that the approval by the Respondents of a site plan for the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro (“ICM”) void for failure of adequate notice under the “Open Meetings Act of 1974” . . . .

The petitioners ask that the Supreme Court consider the following questions, among others:

Whether An Islamic Center Is Entitled To Protection By RLUIPA When They Officially And Publicly Promote, Sponsor and Condone Illegal Behavior Or Terrorists And Their Teachings And Activities?

Whether Notice Of A Proposed Meeting Agenda Of Pervasive Public Importance Required By The Chancery Order Is An “Equally Applied” Exception Or A “Substantial Burden” Prohibited By RLUIPA?

While we express no opinion as to the petitioners’ allegations that the ICM is engaged in illegal behavior or promotes or sponsors terrorists, this case is sure to spark even greater controversy than it has already.  We will report back on this case once we fully analyze the petition.

In the meantime, the petition can be accessed here.

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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.

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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.

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