San Jose Christian College is continuing to engage the attention
of the City Council by pursuing its lawsuit as far as it can go,
despite continuous defeats in the courts. The college could join a
high-profile case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
San Jose Christian College is continuing to engage the attention of the City Council by pursuing its lawsuit as far as it can go, despite continuous defeats in the courts. The college could join a high-profile case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
SJCC sued after the council refused to rezone the former Saint Louise Hospital building at Cochrane Road and Hwy. 101 for use as the college’s new campus. Council said it wanted to reserve the purpose-built hospital for medical services which, it hoped, would eventually return.
Many doctors, labs and an urgent care center left town after the Daughters of Charity closed the Morgan Hill facility in 1999 and moved the hospital to Gilroy, leaving the town virtually without medical care.
The Daughters assigned the rejuvenation of medical services in the old Saint Louise building to the staff of O’Connor Hospital.
However, the facility’s success is possibly jeopardized by a series of doctor-owned medical condominiums with an MIR imaging unit and a similar surgery center in the Morgan Hill Business Ranch. O’Connor officials said they have no problem with an alternative site for doctors’ offices but the surgery center would siphon off funds counted on to make the facility pay for itself.
The college sued, beginning in June 2001, claiming discrimination under RLUIPA (the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000) in a case known as San Jose Christian College v. City of Morgan Hill.
RLUIPA declares that a governing body cannot impose a burden on a person, group or institution that would keep them from practicing their normal religious activities unless the government can show that it has a compelling governmental interest and it is the least restrictive means of furthering that interest.
The city based its denial on the its preference to retain the building for its intended purpose and on SJCC’s failure to complete the application and to follow environmental requirements.
After the college lost in lower court, it appealed to the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and, on March 8, lost again.
Three members of the appeals court issued a 21-page decision affirming the district court decision, (and validating Morgan Hill’s decision) ruling that the city’s denial of a re-zoning application did not violate the college’s First Amendment right to free exercise of religion. It also said that “neither the zoning laws nor CEQA impose a substantial burden on College’s free exercise of religion and that, accordingly, the strict scrutiny requirement of RLUIPA is not triggered.”
Shortly afterwards, the college sent a request to the court, asking for a rehearing before the complete panel of 11 judges.
If that request is honored and if the college loses again, the only remaining recourse is to the U.S. Supreme Court, which Attorney John Dodd, who argued the college’s case, said they just might do.
City Attorney Helene Leichter said the college’s appeal to the full panel would probably be decided by August or September and heard by spring 2005.
C.L.U.B., et al., v. City of Chicago was filed by a collection of churches challenging the city’s failure to rezone to allow churches to build in commercial/industrial areas. Churches said properly zoned scarce in Chicago.
The 65-year-old college has long since given up hopes of locating at Saint Louise; it bought property in Rocklin, east of Sacramento, and intends to open under the name of William Jessup University for the fall 2004 semester. The college remains open in San Jose.
Details: www.rluipa.com/cases/court_cases.html
