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<br /> <br />Statement of the Department of Justice on the Land-Use Provisions of the Religious <br />Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) <br /> <br /> The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), 42 U.S.C. § <br />2000cc et seq., is a civil rights law that protects individuals and religious institutions from <br />discriminatory and unduly burdensome land use regulations.1 After hearings in which <br />Congress found that religious assemblies and institutions were disproportionately affected, <br />and in fact often were actively discriminated against, in local land use decisions, Congress <br />passed RLUIPA unanimously in 2000. President Clinton signed RLUIPA into law on <br />September 22, 2000. <br /> Congress found that zoning authorities were frequently placing excessive or <br />unreasonable burdens on the ability of congregations and individuals to exercise their <br />faith with little to no justification and in violation of the Constitution. Congress further <br />found that religious institutions often faced both subtle and overt discrimination in <br />zoning, particularly minority, newer, smaller, or unfamiliar religious groups and <br />denominations.2 <br /> <br /> Congress also found that, as a whole, religious institutions were treated worse than <br />comparable secular institutions by zoning codes and zoning authorities. As RLUIPA’s <br />Senate sponsors, Senator Hatch and the late Senator Kennedy, said in their joint statement <br />issued upon the bill’s passage: “Zoning codes frequently exclude churches in places where <br />they permit theaters, meetings halls, and other places where large groups of people assemble <br />for secular purposes. . . . Churches have been denied the right to meet in rented storefronts, <br />in abandoned schools, in converted funeral homes, theaters, and skating rinks—in all sorts <br />of buildings that were permitted when they generated traffic for secular purposes.”3 <br /> Congress further found that zoning authorities frequently were placing excessive <br />burdens on the ability of congregations and individuals to exercise their faiths without <br />sufficient justification, in violation of the Constitution. <br /> <br />1 This Statement deals with RLUIPA’s land use provisions. Another section of RLUIPA protects the <br />religious freedom of persons confined to prisons and certain other institutions. 2 146 CONG. REC. S7774 (daily ed. July 27, 2000) (joint statement of Senators Hatch and Kennedy). 3 Id. at S7774-75. <br />4-71