Opinion ID: 212402
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: RLUIPA Overview

Text: We apply well-established legal principles of statutory interpretation. We begin, as always, with the text of the statute. Duncan v. Walker, 533 U.S. 167, 172, 121 S.Ct. 2120, 150 L.Ed.2d 251 (2001). We presume that Congress says in a statute what it means and means in a statute what it says there. Conn. Nat'l Bank v. Germain, 503 U.S. 249, 253-54, 112 S.Ct. 1146, 117 L.Ed.2d 391 (1992). Thus, the plain meaning of a statute controls where that meaning is unambiguous. See Harris Trust & Sav. Bank v. Salomon Smith Barney, Inc., 530 U.S. 238, 254, 120 S.Ct. 2180, 147 L.Ed.2d 187 (2000). Section 3 of RLUIPA provides that [n]o government shall impose a substantial burden on the religious exercise of a person residing in or confined to an institution, as defined in [42 U.S.C. § 1997], even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability, unless the government demonstrates that imposition of the burden on that person (1) is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest; and (2) is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest. 42 U.S.C. § 2000cc-1(a). Thus, an individual must have been residing in or confined to a covered institution to invoke the protections of the Act. The key interpretive question is whether Khatib meets this criterion. RLUIPA incorporates by reference the definition of institution from the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act of 1980 (CRIPA), 42 U.S.C. § 1997 et seq., which defines the term to include any facility or institution that is a jail, prison, or other correctional facility[or] a pretrial detention facility. [1] Under the ordinary, common meaning of these terms, the Santa Ana Courthouse holding facility falls within the definitions of pretrial detention facility and of jail. [2] See Perrin v. United States, 444 U.S. 37, 42, 100 S.Ct. 311, 62 L.Ed.2d 199 (1979) (instructing that unless otherwise defined, words will be interpreted as taking their ordinary, contemporary, common meaning). In reaching this conclusion, we begin with the County's own description of the facility.