Pre-trial proceedings for a religious discrimination lawsuit filed by former Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear’s The Summit Church in North Carolina against the Chatham County Board of Commissioners have been moved to magistrate court.
According to the North Carolina Judicial Branch, while a case can be sent to magistrate court for a variety of reasons, these cases are mainly about civil matters with limited monetary value.
In a letter to the attorneys for both parties in the case on Tuesday, Chief United States District Judge Catherine Eagles of the Middle District of North Carolina said the case was “randomly selected.”
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“This case has been randomly selected from the combined dockets of all district judges and administratively assigned to Magistrate Judge Webster to conduct all pretrial proceedings, including recommendation on dispositive motions,” Eagles wrote while noting they could also choose to conduct all proceedings in magistrate court if they wish.
“Parties have the option to agree for magistrate judges to conduct all proceedings in civil cases, both jury and nonjury, as encouraged by the Judicial Conference of the United States,” she said.
The decision comes after the U.S. Department of Justice has filed a statement of interest in support of The Summit Church after lawyers for the Chatham County Board of Commissioners asked the court to dismiss it.
The Summit Church alleges in its lawsuit that members of the county board unlawfully rejected its application to rezone nearly 100 acres of land to house its Chapel Hill campus. The church contends the board’s decision violated its “civil rights as enshrined in the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and codified in the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.”
The congregation has asked the court for a preliminary injunction and is seeking an order requiring the county to approve the church’s rezoning request and associated site plan.
In response, the county asked the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina to dismiss the complaint with prejudice, citing multiple defenses, including governmental immunity.
Chatham officials also maintain that their zoning decision is a “legislative act” under state law and is not subject to RLUIPA.
The DOJ declared in its statement of interest in support of the church’s claim that RLUIPA protects against the county’s discriminatory zoning decision.
“RLUIPA protects the rights of religious groups to exercise their faith free from the precise type of undue government interference exhibited here,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in the statement. “The Civil Rights Division is committed to defending religious liberties as our founders intended and as federal law requires.”
The DOJ noted that since RLUIPA is a federal law, it “guards individuals and religious institutions from unduly burdensome, unequal, or discriminatory land use regulations.”
“Trial before a magistrate judge can result in greater efficiency and lower costs, as well as an earlier trial date if desired and a special setting. Appeal from a judgment entered by a magistrate judge will be to the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit,” Eagles advised in her letter on Tuesday.
The parties were given 30 days to respond to the offer from the court. It was also noted that even if the parties did not agree to have their case handled by a magistrate judge, it will still be reviewed in magistrate court first anyway.
“Cases in which consent is not given will nevertheless be first considered by the magistrate judge, who will make rulings or recommendations on all motions, including dispositive ones,” Eagles said. “Accordingly, the Clerk may contact you if you have not responded within 30 days.”
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