Living Water Church of God v. Charter Township of Meridian

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding, after bench trial, that “Plaintiffs use of the proposed facility for a religious oriented school and for other ministries of the church constitutes religious exercise”
• holding, after bench trial, that “Plaintiffs use of the proposed facility for a religious oriented school and for other ministries of the church constitutes religious exercise.”
• holding, after bench trial, that the plaintiffs proposed use of building including classrooms, sanctuary, gymnasium, offices and meeting rooms for a religiously oriented school and other ministries of the church constituted religious exercise
• noting that where applicant “will incur delay, expense and uncertainty if it is required to reapply or search for another site” in conjunction with its special permit application, burden goes beyond mere inconvenience and becomes substantial
• finding substantial burden where “Plaintiff is severely limited in its ability to recruit for the school because of the uncertainty about the future space and the current lack of programming” caused by inadequate facilities
• rejecting argument that “operation of a [religious] school with topics similar to and consistent with topics taught in a secular school and other related recreational and other activities normally associated with a secular school or institution does not constitute the exercise of religion”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).