(WKYT) – Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman is leading a 20-state coalition asking the United States Supreme Court to overturn a lower court decision that prevented a Northern Kentucky church from building a shrine on its property.
The Missionaries of Saint John the Baptist received permission from the city of Park Hills in 2021 to build the shrine on property they own, offering a quiet place for meditation and worship before Mass.
Neighbors opposed to the construction of the shrine brought a successful lawsuit that Coleman and the other AGs are seeking to have thrown out.
“In this country, we cannot allow a heckler’s veto to trump religious liberty,” said Coleman. ‘It’s not up to the courts to decide how we practice our faith. We’re asking the U.S. Supreme Court to provide nationwide clarity and stand with people of faith who simply want to worship without unlawful government interference.”
Coleman and other AGs argue that the lawsuit violates the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA).
Passed by Congress in 2000 and signed by President Bill Clinton into law, the RLUIPA protects religious institutions and individuals in custody from discriminatory or unduly burdensome land-use and zoning regulations, as well as restrictions on religious exercise in institutions.
The other states involved in the lawsuit are: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia.
A copy of the brief filed by Coleman and the other AGs can be found here.