Opinion ID: 3025336
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: exclusions and limits –

Text: No government shall impose or 19 implement a land use regulation that – (A) totally excludes religious assemblies from a jurisdiction; or (B) unreasonably limits religious assem blies, institutions, or structures within a jurisdiction. Lighthouse argues the District Court should have entered summary judgment in its favor because both the Ordinance and the Plan violate RLUIPA’s Equal Terms provision on their face by allowing secular assemblies, but not religious ones, to locate in the zones they regulate. Lighthouse contends the District Court misinterpreted RLUIPA, imposing additional requirements not contemplated by the statute. It urges us to reverse the judgment of the District Court and to hold that (1) a plaintiff, advancing a claim under the Equal Terms provision, need not prove that the unequal treatment imposed a “substantial burden” on its exercise of religion; (2) the Equal Terms provision does not require the identification of a similarly situated comparator; a religious assembly need only show that the challenged land-use regulations treat any secular assembly better than the religious plaintiff; and (3) unlike the Substantial Burdens section, the Equal Terms provision does not provide for strict scrutiny of offending land-use regulations but rather operates under a strict liability standard, making the regulations 20 automatically invalid. Long Branch responds that the District Court’s decision was correct. The parties substantially agree that both the Ordinance and the Plan are land use regulations within the meaning of 42 U.S.C. 2000cc(b), that Lighthouse’s proposed church use is use as a religious assembly, and that several of the permitted uses under both ordinances are nonreligious assemblies. The question is what else Lighthouse must show in order to prevail.
RLUIPA’s Equal Terms provision show that the alleged discriminatory land-use regulation imposes a “substantial burden” on its religious exercise? The District Court held that a plaintiff raising a claim under the Equal Terms provision must show that the challenged land-use regulation imposed a “substantial burden” on its exercise of religion. We disagree because the structure of the statute and the legislative history clearly reveal that the substantial burden requirement does not apply to claims under 2(b)(1), the Equal Terms provision. Section 2(b)(1) does not include “substantial burden” as an element; section 2(a)(1), the Substantial Burdens section, titled as such, does. Since Congress evidently knew how to require a showing of a substantial burden, it must have intended not to do so in the Equal Terms provision. See Russello v. United States, 464 U.S. 16, 23 (1983) (“where Congress 21 includes particular language in one section of a statute but omits it in another section of the same Act, it is generally presumed that Congress acts intentionally and purposely in the disparate inclusion or exclusion”). The legislative history supports the conclusion that the Equal Terms provision does not incorporate a substantial burden requirement. In presenting the bill for consideration, co-sponsor Senator Hatch stated RLUIPA would “ensure that if a government action substantially burdens the exercise of religion . . ., the government must demonstrate that imposing the burden serves a compelling public interest and does so by the least restrictive means. In addition, with respect to land use regulation, the bill specifically prohibits various forms of religious discrimination and exclusion.” 146 Cong. Rec. S7774 (emphasis added). Neither the House nor the Senate sponsors’ analyses mention the phrase “substantial burden” in connection with the Discrimination and Exclusion section or its Equal Terms subpart. See 146 Cong. Rec. E1563 and 146 Cong. Rec. S7774. The statements by the bill’s sponsors, quoted by the District Court in support of its construction of the Equal Terms provision, are not persuasive evidence of contrary legislative intent. See Lighthouse II, 406 F. Supp. at 519 (quoting 146 Cong. Rec. S7774-7776) (joint statement of Sen. Hatch and Sen. Kennedy). First, the court quoted the Senate sponsors’ statement that the Equal Terms provision “enforce[s] the Free Exercise Clause against laws that burden religion and are not neutral and generally applicable.” The use of the word “burden” in this context, however, is descriptive of the area at which the 22 statute is targeted; it does not create a “substantial burden” element in the provisions of 2 (b)(1). Moreover, cases interpreting the First Amendment’s Free Exercise clause do not require a plaintiff, challenging a discriminatory regulation, to show that it imposes a substantial burden on plaintiff’s religious exercise. See Tenafly Eruv Ass’n v. Borough of Tenafly, 309 F.3d 144, 170 (3d Cir. 2002) (“Under Smith and Lukumi . . . there is no substantial burden requirement when government discriminates against religious conduct”). It follows then that there is no requirement that a statute, like the Equal Terms provision of RLUIPA, which enforces the Free Exercise clause, include such a burden as a required element of proof. Second, the District Court relied on the statement in the legislative history that “the party asserting a violation of this Act shall in all cases bear the burden of proof that the governmental action in question constitutes a substantial burden on religious exercise.” This is a commentary on RLUIPA’s burden-shifting provision, which directs that “[i]f a plaintiff produces prima facie evidence to support a claim alleging a violation of the Free Exercise Clause or a violation of section 2000cc of this title, the government shall bear the burden of persuasion of any element of the claim” except that the plaintiff retains the burden of proof on substantial burden. 42 U.S.C. § 2000cc-2(b). This provision and the Senate sponsors’ statement on it merely establish that, where substantial burden is an element of the claim, the plaintiff must prove it; they do not address when substantial burden is such an element. 23 Finally, the District Court cites the proposition that the Discrimination and Exclusion section “directly address[es] some of the more egregious forms of land use regulation, and provides more precise standards than the substantial burden and compelling interest tests.” This statement differentiates between the substantial burden test and the “more precise standards” of section 2(b). Thus, it detracts from, rather than lending support to, the District Court’s construction. The two Courts of Appeals that have interpreted RLUIPA’s Equal Terms provision have agreed that a plaintiff need not show substantial burden to prevail under it. See Konikov v. Orange County, 410 F.3d 1317, 1327-29 (11th Cir. 2005) (holding that although the zoning code at issue did not impose a substantial burden on plaintiff’s religious exercise, it violated RLUIPA’s equal terms provision because it was enforced in a way that treated religious organizations on less than equal terms with secular ones); Midrash Sephardi, Inc. v. Town of Surfside, 366 F.3d 1214, 1229-35 (11th Cir. 2004) (a zoning ordinance prohibiting churches in a certain district violated RLUIPA’s equal terms provision although it did not impose a substantial burden on plaintiffs); Digrugilliers v. Consolidated City of Indianapolis, No. 07-1358, 2007 WL 3151201 at  (7 th Cir. 2003); Civil Liberties for Urban Believers v. City of Chicago, 342 F.3d 752, 762 (7th Cir. 2003) (“the substantial burden and nondiscrimination provisions are operatively independent of one another”). We now hold as well that a plaintiff challenging a land-use regulation under section 2(b)(1) of RLUIPA does not need to present evidence that the regulation imposes a substantial burden on its religious exercise. 24
to show that it is “similarly situated” to a secular comparator that was treated better? The District Court held that Lighthouse could not prevail on its RLUIPA Equal Terms claim because it could not identify a similarly situated nonreligious comparator. Lighthouse contends this was error and urges us to take the position that a plaintiff, asserting a violation of the Equal Terms provision, needs to show nothing more than that the challenged land-use regulation treats one or more nonreligious assemblies or institutions better than a religious assembly or institution, without regard for the objectives of the regulation or the characteristics of the secular and religious comparators. We conclude that the District Court was correct in construing RLUIPA’s Equal Terms provision to require a plaintiff to do something more than identify any nonreligious assembly or institution that enjoys better terms under the land-use regulation. Nevertheless, we find that the court erred in requiring the religious plaintiff to point to a secular comparator that proposes the same combination of uses. As we will explain, what the Equal Terms provision does in fact require is a secular comparator that is similarly situated as to the regulatory purpose of the regulation in question – similar to First Amendment Free Exercise jurisprudence. It is undisputed that, when drafting the Equal Terms provision, Congress intended to codify the existing jurisprudence interpreting the Free Exercise Clause. See 146 Cong. Rec. S7774 (July 27, 2007) (Senate Sponsors’ statement) 25 (sections 2(b)(1) and (b)(2) “enforce the Free Exercise rule against laws that burden religion and are not neutral and generally applicable”). Under Free Exercise cases, the decision whether a regulation violates a plaintiff’s constitutional rights hinges on a comparison of how it treats entities or behavior that have the same effect on its objectives. As the Supreme Court held in Smith, regulations that are neutral and of general applicability are presumptively valid under the Free Exercise clause even if they impose an incidental burden on the exercise of religion. Smith, 494 U.S. at 878-79. A regulation does not automatically cease being neutral and generally applicable, however, simply because it allows certain secular behaviors but not certain religious behaviors. The impact of the allowed and forbidden behaviors must be examined in light of the purpose of the regulation. In addition, when a government permits secular exemptions to an otherwise generally applicable government regulation, the Free Exercise Clause requires that the government accord equal treatment to religion-based claims for exemptions that would have a similar impact on the protected interests. The Supreme Court’s opinion in Lukumi makes this point clear. That case involved a challenge by practitioners of the Santeria religion to a series of city ordinances prohibiting the animal sacrifices that are part of Santeria rituals. The Supreme Court held that the ordinances, taken together, were neither neutral nor generally applicable, but rather had been “gerrymandered” to prohibit almost exclusively the religious sacrifice of animals; none of the city’s aims in enacting the ordinances (preventing cruelty to animals and limiting the health 26 risks caused by improper disposal of animal carcasses and consumption of uninspected meat) could warrant prohibiting the killing of animals in religious rituals while allowing, among other secular activities, hunting, fishing and the use of rabbits to train greyhounds. Lukumi, 508 U.S. at 536-7. Focusing specifically on a zoning ordinance that prohibited the slaughter of animals outside the areas zoned for slaughterhouses, the Court pointed out that it made an exception for “any person, group, or organization that slaughters or processes for sale, small numbers of hogs and/or cattle per week ” and remarked that the city had “not explained why commercial operations that slaughter small numbers of hogs and cattle do not implicate its professed desire to prevent cruelty to animals and preserve the public health.” Id. at 545 (internal quotation marks omitted). Thus, the reason the ordinance was suspect was not merely because it allowed secular versions of the religious behavior it prohibited, but because both behaviors impacted the city’s declared goals in the same way. The unequal treatment of equally detrimental behaviors is what caused the violation of the Free Exercise clause. This Court’s Free Exercise opinions in Fraternal Order of Police v. City of Newark,170 F.3d 359 (3d Cir. 1999), Tenafly, 309 F.3d 144, and Blackhawk v. Pennsylvania, 381 F.3d 202 (3d Cir. 2004), confirm that we have consistently understood Free Exercise analysis to include an examination of the comparators’ relation to the aims of the regulation. First, in Fraternal Order of Police, we examined a challenge by Muslim police officers against the Newark Police Department’s requirement that they shave beards that they wore for religious reasons. The declared aim of the Department’s no-beard policy 27 was to impose a uniform look on its police force. Id. at 366. The policy exempted two classes of individuals: undercover officers and uniformed officers who wore beards for medical reasons. We held that the medical exemption made the regulation subject to heightened scrutiny under the Free Exercise Clause because it “indicate[d] that the Department ha[d] made a value judgment that secular (i.e., medical) motivations for wearing a beard are important enough to overcome its general interest in uniformity but that religious motivations are not.” Id. Importantly, however, we also made it clear that the policy’s other categorical exemption, for undercover officers, did not raise Free Exercise concerns. The Department clearly had no interest in making its undercover officers easily identifiable as police, and thus that exception did not “undermine the Department’s interest in uniformity.” Id. Similarly, we held in Tenafly that the township’s selective enforcement of its prohibition against affixing signs to utility poles suggested “a discriminatory intent” because the township routinely allowed, among other things, house number signs, orange ribbons supporting one position in a controversy over school regionalization, and directional signs bearing crosses to show the location of churches, but it denied permission to an Orthodox Jewish group to affix lechis, religiously significant items, to the poles. Tenafly, 309 F.3d at 165-167. Again, however, we were careful to note that not all exceptions to the facially neutral rule were troublesome, only the ones that bore the same relation to the purposes of the regulation, i.e., preventing clutter, as did the prohibited lechis. Thus, the Borough of Tenafly’s exception for cable and telephone wires did not make the regulation any less neutral or 28 generally applicable because “utility poles exist to facilitate telecommunications” and therefore “utility wires are obviously unlike any of the other materials [Tenafly had] allowed people to affix to the poles.” Id. at 168 n.29. The same principle held true in Blackhawk. There, we examined the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s refusal to waive a wildlife permit fee for a Native American who kept two bears for religious reasons although the statute contained categorical waivers for zoos and “nationally recognized circuses.” Blackhawk, 381 F.3d. at 211. In holding that the statute violated the Free Exercise clause, we focused on the fact that categorical waivers for circuses and zoos – exemptions intended to “serve the Commonwealth’s interest in promoting commerce, recreation, and education” and which “undermine the interests served by the fee provision to at least the same degree as would a [religious] exemption” – were available, but the Commonwealth refused to extend an individual religious waiver, which would have served “these or analogous interests.” Id. We see that the Free Exercise jurisprudence of the Supreme Court and of this Court teaches that the relevant comparison for purposes of a Free Exercise challenge to a regulation is between its treatment of certain religious conduct and the analogous secular conduct that has a similar impact on the regulation’s aims. In each case, a regulation’s preferential treatment of secular behavior that did not affect the regulation’s purpose in the same way as the prohibited religious behavior did not raise Free Exercise concerns. Heightened scrutiny was warranted only when a principled distinction could not be made 29 between the prohibited religious behavior and its secular comparator in terms of their effects on the regulatory objectives. Thus, the District Court was correct in holding that the relevant analysis under the Equal Terms provision of RLUIPA must take into account the challenged regulation’s objectives: a regulation will violate the Equal Terms provision only if it treats religious assemblies or institutions less well than secular assemblies or institutions that are similarly situated as to the regulatory purpose. There is no need, however, for the religious institution to show that there exists a secular comparator that performs the same functions. For that reason, the District Court erred in focusing on Lighthouse’s inability to identify a secular comparator with a similar range of uses.11 11 Because we construe the statute to conform to the contours of Free Exercise jurisprudence with respect to this aspect, we need not reach the question whether Congress would have exceeded its powers under Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment, under which the Equal Terms provision is enacted, by mandating maximum-possible favorable treatment for religious institutions without regard for legitimate governmental objectives. See City of Boerne, 521 U.S. at 519 (Congress may use its power under Section 5 to enforce the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment, but may use its power only to “enforce” a constitutional right, not to substantively alter it. “Legislation which alters the remedy of the Free Exercise Clause cannot be said to be enforcing the Clause.”) Because we limit the statute in this way, we are not 30 To support its position that a RLUIPA Equal Terms plaintiff does not need to identify a comparator, however, Lighthouse relies on the opinion of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Midrash Sephardi, 366 F.3d 1214, and the recent Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals decision following it, Vision Church, United Methodist v. Village of Long Grove, 468 F.3d 975 (7th Cir. 2006). Nevertheless, we agree with Long Branch, the District Court, and the United States (which appeared as amicus curiae in this case) that we should decline this invitation to adopt the Eleventh Circuit’s expansive reading of the statute. In Midrash Sephardi, two Orthodox Jewish synagogues challenged a zoning scheme which, like the one at issue here, prohibited churches and synagogues within the Town of Surfside’s two-block business district while allowing theaters, restaurants, private clubs, and other secular uses. Surfside defended the zoning ordinance on the basis of its need to “invigorate the business district and . . . create a strong tax base through its retail district.” Id., 366 F.3d at 1221. The District Court concluded that the ordinance did not violate RLUIPA because the permitted secular assemblies and institutions were not similarly situated to churches and synagogues: “private clubs provid[e] more of a social setting [and] provide more concerned about Congress’s authority under Section 5 to impose what amounts to a strict liability standard on regulations that violate the Equal Terms provision. The dissent, however, does not limit its interpretation of section 2(b)(1) to Free Exercise jurisprudence and for that reason we doubt the viability of the dissent’s interpretation. See footnote 14 infra. 31 synergy for the shopping district in keeping with the purpose of [the ordinance].” Id. at 1230 (quoting Midrash Sephardi v. Surfside, No. 99-1566-CIV, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22629, at -33 (S.D. Fla. July 13, 2000) (Midrash Sephardi I)). In reaching this conclusion, the District Court relied on Justice Harlan’s “natural perimeter” test, developed in Walz v. Tax Comm’n, 397 U.S. 664 (1970), under which a regulation is considered neutral and presumptively valid under the religious clauses of the First Amendment if its “circumference . . . encircles a class so broad that it can be fairly concluded that religious institutions could be thought to fall within the natural perimeter.” See Walz, 397 U.S. at 696 (Harlan, J., concurring). The District Court reasoned, in the case of the Surfside ordinance, that the regulation generally allowed uses that would advance its aims while prohibiting a varied group of uses, including “churches, synagogues, educational or philanthropic institutions (including museums), parking lots and garages, public and governmental buildings and public utility/public service uses.” Midrash Sephardi I, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2262 at . The Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit disagreed with the District Court’s reasoning. It concluded that RLUIPA’s plain language provided the statute’s own definition of the “natural perimeter” for a valid land-use regulation, namely, “the category of ‘assemblies or institutions.’” 12 Id. In other words, 12 The court looked simply to the dictionary for a definition of “assembly” as “a company of persons collected together in 32 according to the Eleventh Circuit, all assemblies and institutions “travel” together under RLUIPA: if a zoning regulation allows a secular assembly, all religious assemblies must be permitted. See id. at 1230-31.13 See also Vision Church, 468 F.3d 975, one place and usually for some common purpose (as deliberation and legislation, worship, or social entertainment)” and “institution” as “an established society or corporation: an establishment or foundation esp[ecially] of a public character,” id. at 1230, quoting Webster’s 3d New Int’l Unabridged Dictionary 131, 1171 (1993). 13 Having created this broad scope for “equal terms,” the Midrash Sephardi court then incorporated the Smith-Lukumi line of precedent, requiring strict scrutiny to determine if the ordinance was in fact neutral and generally applicable, concluding it was not, first because both overinclusive and underinclusive with respect to its goals of spurring commercial development in the business district and second because the documents showed the motivations for the synagogues’ activities played a role in the town’s thinking. Id. at 1233-35. We prefer, however, to interpret section 2(b)(1)’s “equal terms” as directed to “similarly situated” comparators in regard to the regulatory purpose of the ordinance, see supra, and to reject the Midrash-Sephardi court’s adoption of a broad scope comparator and its addition of a “strict scrutiny” element to be incorporated into RLUIPA § 2b(1), see Part II.B.3 supra. As we conclude in Part II.B.3, the incorporation of “strict scrutiny” into section 2(b)(1) is inconsistent with its express language. We surmise that the Midrash-Sephardi court required a strict scrutiny 33 1003 (holding that a plaintiff making a claim under RLUIPA section 2(b)(1) need not identify a nonreligious comparator that is “similarly situated in all relevant respects”). But see Konikov, 410 F.3d 1317 (limiting Midrash Sephardi to facial challenges and holding that a similarly situated secular comparator must be identified for as-applied challenges). We are not persuaded by the reasoning of the Eleventh Circuit. Its reading of the statute would lead to the conclusion that Congress intended to force local governments to give any and all religious entities a free pass to locate wherever any secular institution or assembly is allowed. Thus, under the Eleventh Circuit’s interpretation, if a town allows a local, tenmember book club to meet in the senior center, it must also permit a large church with a thousand members – or, to take examples from the Free Exercise caselaw, it must permit a religious assembly with rituals involving sacrificial killings of animals or the participation of wild bears – to locate in the same neighborhood regardless of the impact such a religious entity might have on the envisioned character of the area. See Lukumi, 508 U.S. at 520; Blackhawk, 381 F.3d 202. We believe this result would be contrary to the text of the statute and to the expressed intent of Congress. We conclude instead examination in order that its holding conform to existing Free Exercise case law – see footnote 11 supra. However, we believe that, unlike the Midrash-Sephardi court, we have come to a constitutionally acceptable interpretation of section 2(b)(1), following its express terms, without incorporating additional terms into it. 34 that a religious plaintiff under the Equal Terms Provision must identify a better-treated secular comparator that is similarly situated in regard to the objectives of the challenged regulation.
requiring strict scrutiny? The final issue of statutory construction before us is whether the Equal Terms provision should incorporate a required strict scrutiny analysis of a regulation that treats a religious assembly or institution on less than equal terms with similarly situated nonreligious assemblies or institutions. We hold that RLUIPA’s Equal Terms provision operates on a strict liability standard; strict scrutiny does not come into play. Our analysis of whether strict scrutiny applies to the Equal Terms provision is informed by our discussion of whether a plaintiff under this provision must show a “substantial burden,” supra. The land-use provisions of RLUIPA are structured to create a clear divide between claims under section 2(a) (the Substantial Burdens section) and section 2(b) (the Discrimination and Exclusion section, of which the Equal Terms provision is a part). Since the Substantial Burden section includes a strict scrutiny provision and the Discrimination and Exclusion section does not, we conclude this “disparate exclusion” was part of the intent of Congress and not an oversight. See Russello, 464 U.S. at 23. In reaching this conclusion, we again must part ways with the Eleventh Circuit, which has held that “a violation of the Equal Terms provision is not necessarily fatal to the land use 35 regulation” but must “‘undergo strict scrutiny.’” Primera Iglesia Bautista Hispana de Boca Raton, 450 F.3d 1295, 1308 (11th Cir. 2006) (quoting Midrash Sephardi, 366 F.3d at 1232). The Eleventh Circuit grounded this conclusion on the observation that, according to legislative history, “RLUIPA’s equal terms provision codifies the Smith-Lukumi line of [Free Exercise] precedent,” which imposes strict scrutiny “where a law fails to similarly regulate secular and religious conduct implicating the same government interests.” Midrash Sephardi, 366 F.3d at 1232. As discussed at length above, we give deference to Congress’s intent to codify the Free Exercise jurisprudence. In that regard, however, we find that Congress clearly signaled its intent that the operation of the Equal Terms provision not include strict scrutiny by the express language of sections 2a(1) and 2b(1) and by incorporating the element of Free Exercise case law, as can be seen in the language “equal terms,” that requires a determination that there is a secular comparator as to the objectives of the challenged regulation, see Lukumi, 508 U.S. at 536-37. Thus we decline to follow the Eleventh Circuit’s reasoning. We hold instead that, if a land-use regulation treats religious assemblies or institutions on less than equal terms with nonreligious assemblies or institutions that are no less harmful to the governmental objectives in enacting the regulation, that regulation – without more – fails under RLUIPA.14 14 With our definition of comparator as a secular assembly that has a similar impact as a religious assembly on the regulation’s aims, we are putting the teeth into section 2(b)(1) that it needs to follow Free Exercise case law. It is because the 36
summary judgment for Long Branch on the RLUIPA Equal Terms claims? We have construed the RLUIPA Equal Terms section to include neither a substantial burden nor a strict scrutiny requirement. What the Equal Terms section does require is that the plaintiff show that it was treated less well than a nonreligious comparator that had an equivalent negative impact on the aims of the land-use regulation. In sum, a plaintiff asserting a claim under the RLUIPA Equal Terms provision must show (1) it is a religious assembly or institution, (2) subject to a land use regulation, which regulation (3) treats the religious Midrash-Sephardi court defined “comparator” so broadly – despite the “equal terms” language of section 2(b)(1) – that, in order to conform to Free Exercise jurisprudence, the court had to create a “strict scrutiny” element in section 2(b)(1). Similarly, our concern with the dissent is that it formulates an equally boundless definition of “assembly” as did the Midrash-Sephardi court, but then the dissent requires no substantial burden, no strict scrutiny and no limitation on the secular comparator. This expansive reading of section 2(b)(1), in our opinion, goes beyond existing free exercise jurisprudence and as such would render section 2(b)(1) unconstitutional by creating a substantively altered right not heretofore cognizable in Free Exercise jurisprudence. See City of Boerne, 521 U.S. at 519. 37 assembly on less than equal terms with (4) a nonreligious assembly or institution (5) that causes no lesser harm to the interests the regulation seeks to advance. Cf. Primera Iglesia Bautista, 450 F.3d at 1307 (enumerating elements 1-4 as the requirements of a RLUIPA section 2(b)(1) cause of action). We must now determine under this analytical framework whether the District Court correctly decided that Long Branch was entitled to summary judgment on Lighthouse’s Equal Terms claims with regard to both the Ordinance and the Plan.
We begin, out of chronological order, with the Plan. The Plan allows non-religious assemblies such as theaters, cinemas, performance art venues, restaurants, bars and clubs, culinary schools, and dance studios, but not any non-listed uses, including churches and synagogues. Thus the question is whether the exclusion of churches and religious assemblies from the Broadway Corridor treats the churches on less than equal terms with nonreligious assemblies or institutions whose presence would cause no lesser harm to the redevelopment and revitalization of the Corridor. We conclude that it does not. Long Branch’s goal in adopting the Plan is well documented – it was to “achieve redevelopment of an underdeveloped and underutilized segment of the City.” Long Branch’s hope is for the “Broadway Corridor” to become a core “sustainable retail ‘main’ street” that will anchor a “vibrant” and “vital” downtown residential community. Long Branch argues that churches are by their nature not likely to foster the kind of extended-hours traffic and synergetic spending it wishes to 38 foster in the Broadway Corridor and that churches are different from the allowed secular assemblies because, by operation of a New Jersey statute prohibiting the issuance of liquor licenses in the vicinity of houses of worship, permitting churches into the Broadway Corridor would hinder the development of the kind of modern entertainment-oriented district that Long Branch envisages. See N.J.S.A. 33:1-76 (with the exception of certain “grandfathered” establishments, “no license shall be issued for the sale of alcoholic beverages within two hundred feet of any church or public schoolhouse or private schoolhouse not conducted for pecuniary profit”). We do not need to reach the question whether a church by its very nature is unlikely to contribute to the development of a “vibrant” and “vital” downtown community centered on an entertainment and retail district. We agree with Long Branch that churches are not similarly situated to the other allowed assemblies with respect to the aims of the Plan where, by operation of a state statute, churches would fetter Long Branch’s ability to allow establishments with liquor licenses into the Broadway Corridor. It would be very difficult for Long Branch to create the kind of entertainment area envisaged by the Plan – one full of restaurants, bars, and clubs – if sizeable areas of the Broadway Corridor were not available for the issuance of liquor licenses.15 15 We note that the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in its recent decision in Digrugilliers, 2007 WL 3151201 at , interpreting the Equal Terms provision of section 2(b)(1), held that government “cannot, by granting churches special privileges 39 Lighthouse, with the support of amici Association of Christian Schools International and the General Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists, argues that the existence of the New Jersey statute is not dispositive for three reasons. First, Lighthouse has offered to waive its rights under it in perpetuity; second, a State cannot “immunize” itself against a constitutional duty by artificially creating a distinction that it can then invoke to justify disparate treatment; and, third, Long Branch admitted that it had not actually conducted any studies to determine if churches would have a negative impact. Long Branch responds that a waiver would be ineffective because it would have to be renewed at every license renewal or transfer. Long Branch is correct. Under N.J.S.A. 33:1-76.2, if a church annually waives its protection under the statute with respect to a license for 15 years, the holder of the license can apply for renewal “without further or renewed authority, or waiver, of the church of the school.” Every new licensee, however, would require a new waiver. This could cause [Indiana law forbids the sale of liquor within 200 feet of a church] . . ., furnish the premise for excluding churches from otherwise suitable districts.” We do not so easily dismiss N.J.S.A. 33:1-76, the New Jersey statute barring liquor licenses within 200 feet of a church. The statute was enacted many years ago – not to discriminate against churches, but to favor them. We point out also that the New Jersey statute bars liquor licenses within 200 feet of a non-profit “schoolhouse,” an another type of assembly which is not permitted in the Redevelopment District. 40 confusion and might give the church unacceptable control over the development of the downtown area. In addition, even if a perpetual waiver were practically possible, in order to act neutrally toward all potential religious applicants, Long Branch could not simply grant Lighthouse an exemption. It would have to amend the regulation to allow all religious institutions to establish themselves within the relevant zones on the condition that they waive their rights under the law. It is not inconceivable that such a requirement would interfere with a potential applicant’s religious tenets and cause Long Branch impermissibly to entangle itself in an individual religious institution’s exercise of religion.16 16 Similarly, Lighthouse argues that it is, in fact, the kind of church that would have a positive impact on the kind of downtown district Long Branch is trying to create because its Pentecostal services are “upbeat” and because it would hold several services a day, including late at night. Rev. Brown testified he would want to use the building “24 and 7,” and place a storefront religious retail store there. The city planner conceded that the presence of a retail store would make the church “more compatible” with its retail neighbors. However, for Long Branch to allow Lighthouse an exemption because of the “upbeat” nature of its services and their frequency, as well as Lighthouse’s willingness to engage in commercial activities, is to risk discriminating between religious uses in order to avoid potential discrimination against religious uses. See Larson v. Valente, 456 U.S. 228 (1982) (invalidating a state statute that regulated the solicitation of donations by charitable organizations if, but only if, the organization solicited more than 41 Lighthouse’s second argument is equally unpersuasive. On its face, the alcohol-free-zone law was enacted to favor churches, not to disfavor them. Although its effect in this context is to handicap religious institutions, it cannot be said that the Plan and the New Jersey statute, taken together, suggest improper motives. Indeed, we have no concern about the earnestness of Long Branch’s intent with the Plan. The Plan allows only the kind of assemblies that are likely to further its goal – theaters, cinemas, and performing arts centers, but not, for example, strip clubs. The allowed uses are establishments that generate relatively high income and encourage visitors to linger in the downtown area into the evening. In addition, the Plan exhibits internal consistency by not allowing schools – under the New Jersey statute non-profit “schoolhouses” would trigger the same restrictions as churches on the availability of liquor licenses. See N.J.S.A. 33:1-76. Finally, we are not persuaded by Lighthouse’s argument that Long Branch failed to present any evidence that the unavailability of liquor licenses would detrimentally affect its plans for a “vibrant” and “vital” downtown centered on a hightraffic, extended-hours retail and entertainment district. Although there may be room for disagreement over Long 50% of its funds from nonmembers: the statute “created a denominational preference because the burdens of the regulation clearly discriminated against religious organizations that were significantly involved in fund raising activities aimed at nonmembers.”) We do not believe Long Branch must run this risk. 42 Branch’s prioritizing of the availability of alcohol consumption over the ability to seek spiritual enlightenment, it is clear that Long Branch could not create a downtown area where restaurants, clubs, bars, retail and entertainment facilities synergize if Long Branch could not issue liquor licenses throughout that area. Thus, we agree with the District Court that Long Branch is entitled to summary judgment on Lighthouse’s RLUIPA claim as regards the Plan because Lighthouse has placed no evidence in the record that the Plan treats a religious assembly on less than equal terms with a secular assembly that would cause an equivalent negative impact on Long Branch’s regulatory goals.
We reach a different result with respect to the Ordinance. Unlike the Plan, the Ordinance’s aims are not well documented. The Ordinance permitted a range of different uses in the Central Commercial District, including a restaurant, variety store and other retail store, educational service and college, “Assembly hall, bowling alley, and motion picture theater,” governmental service, municipal building, new automobile and boat showroom, and “High Technology - Light Industrial.” Among the uses permitted upon issuance of a conditional use permit were motor vehicle service station and public utility. Although it appeared to us in Lighthouse I that the Ordinance, on its face, might allow all forms of assembly under the “Assembly Hall” category, later discovery clarified that Long Branch’s construction of the term “Assembly Hall” did not 43 include use as a religious assembly. Cf. Lighthouse I, 100 Fed Appx. at 74-75. Because there is nothing in the record describing Long Branch’s objectives for the Central Commercial District under the Ordinance and because it is not apparent from the allowed uses why a church would cause greater harm to regulatory objectives than an “assembly hall” that could be used for unspecified meetings, the District Court erred in granting summary judgment to Long Branch on this claim. Rather, Lighthouse is entitled to summary judgment in its favor because Long Branch has failed to create a genuine issue of material fact as to whether the Ordinance treated religious assemblies or institutions on less than equal terms with non-religious assemblies or institutions that caused equivalent harm to its governmental objectives. We will therefore remand this claim to the District Court to enter summary judgment for Lighthouse and to determine compensatory damages for the period between Lighthouse’s application for a waiver as a church and the enactment of the Plan. The District Court may also, at its discretion, award appropriate attorney fees. See 42 U.S.C. § 1988(b). Since Lighthouse’s claim for injunctive relief under the Ordinance is moot, however, only monetary relief is available to it.