Citizens Against Immoral Property Taxes
	On the National Scene Zoning Authorities Discriminate Against Churches Churches across the nation are increasingly facing discrimination from local zoning authorities with respect to location or improvement of their facilities. Zoning Boards often want to eliminate churches from downtown and commercial areas because churches do not generate retail and tax revenue. They also attempt to restrict churches in residential areas for allegedly creating traffic and noise problems. The result has been that our nation's houses of faith have their freedom to worship where and how they choose violated by ignorant or hostile zoning officials. Walker County citizens successfully fought a similar group of government bureaucrats and thieves by defeating Local Constitutional Amendment #1. In response to the religious discrimination against churches, Congress passed the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA) , which protects religious land uses from discrimination. RLUIPA states that government zoning authorities may not use zoning laws to discriminate against churches unless they have a compelling state interest in doing so. Even if a municipality can show that its zoning laws serve a compelling interest, it still must demonstrate that its actions are the least restrictive means of protecting that interest. In most cases, those interests may be easily served by restrictions that fall short of denial of a variance or special use permit.
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