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example, to protect houses of worship, individuals holding prayer meetings in their homes, religious schools, religious retreat centers, faith-based homeless shelters, soup kitchens, group homes, and other social services. 2. What does “religious exercise” include? RLUIPA provides in Section 8 that “religious exercise” includes any exercise of religion, “whether or not compelled by, or central to, a system of religious belief.” Thus a county or municipality cannot avoid the force of RLUIPA by asserting that a particular religious activity is something that a religious group merely wants to do rather than something that it must do. For example, a town could not claim that Wednesday prayer meetings are not religious exercise because they are less central to a church’s beliefs or less compulsory than Sunday worship services. RLUIPA also specifies in Section 8 that “[t]he use, building, or conversion of real property for the purpose of religious exercise shall be considered to be religious exercise . . . .” This provision makes clear that construction or expansion of places of worship and other properties used for religious exercise purposes is religious exercise under RLUIPA. Religious exercise covers a wide range of activities, including operation of homeless shelters, soup kitchens, and other social services; accessory uses such as fellowship halls, parish halls and similar buildings or rooms used for meetings, religious education, and similar functions; operation of a religious retreat center in a house; religious gatherings in homes; and construction or expansion of schools, even where the facilities would be used for both secular and religious educational activities. 3. Who is bound by RLUIPA’s requirements? RLUIPA applies to states (including state departments and agencies) and their subdivisions such as counties, municipalities, villages, towns, cities, city councils, planning boards, zoning boards and zoning appeals boards. RLUIPA does not cover the actions of private citizens unless acting under color of state law, such as government employees. RLUIPA does not apply to the federal government, though another similar law, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000bb, does. 4. Does RLUIPA exempt religious assemblies and institutions from local zoning laws? No. RLUIPA is not a blanket exemption from zoning laws. As a general matter, religious institutions must apply for the same permits, follow the same requirements, and go through the same land-use processes as other land users. RLUIPA does not pre-empt or replace the normal zoning code. Rather, it imposes a number of safeguards and 4-73