Here are some developments that we are following involving religious land use and the intersection of religion and local government.

  • New Life Evangelistic Center, which runs a homeless shelter in downtown St. Louis, and the City of St. Louis to explore potential resolution to RLUIPA suit involving either City’s blessing for Church to host up to 275 people at the existing facility or give church title to a different building to continue operations. (St. Louis Louis Post-Dispatch has more) (previous post here)
  • Southern Colorado high school sued by teacher for religious discrimination. The Cowboy Church at Crossroads rents cafeteria space at Florence High for Sunday morning services, hosts prayer every morning before school around the flagpole and hosts Bible study and pizza during lunch in a school classroom. (local coverage by the Denver Post)
  • S. Marine files an appeal after discharge for bad conduct when she failed to remove bible verse from cubicle: “No weapon formed against me shall prosper.” (coverage from the Military Times)
  • Pastor Jared Pierson of ActivateChurch.tv denied conditional use permit to continue worship services in his garage and to house parishioners in need. (local coverage from Wisconsin Channel 3 News)
  • Nevada school apologizes to twelve year old Mackenzie Fraiser after censoring her “All About Me” power point presentation, which included a Bible verse as her “inspirational saying.” (BreitBart Texas provides coverage)
  • Neighbors sue after All Shores Wesleyan Church allowed to raze home and build an extra driveway in residential area. (coverage by the Grand Haven Tribune)
  • Federal courts consider whether filing an exemption request from Obamacare’s contraceptive mandate imposes a substantial burden. (Caroline Mala Corbin of University of Miami School of Law and Elizabeth Slattery, legal fellow in the Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, ponder the issue)
  • Surry County Board of Commissioners attorney warns Board that prayer policy consisting of mainstream Christian prayers may violate U.S. Constitution. TM Gerber comments that the Board’s attorney “is a perfect example of what is wrong with America. He needs to be stripped of his title, disbarred, and shipped off to Mexico or Canada.” (The Mount Airy News reports)
  • Indiana First Church of Cannabis Founder Bill Levin continues plans to hold first church service on July 1 – the day Indiana’s controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act takes effect. Levin, who holds the church title of “grand poobah” and “minister of love” states that: “This is what I live by, and I have more faith in this religion than any other,” said Bill Levin. “This is my lifestyle. This is millions of people’s lifestyle.”  (USA Today reports).
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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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