News Release
For Immediate Release: 7.8.26
Contact: Natalie Konstans, media@firstliberty.org
Direct: 972-941-4453
Ukrainian Catholic Church Urges Federal Court to Reverse Lower Court Decision Approving the Exclusion of Churches or Shrines from Collier Township
Attorneys allege Collier Township governs by a double standard when it imposes restrictions on the church while giving free reign to non-religious groups.
Philadelphia, PA—First Liberty Institute, Troutman Pepper Locke LLP, and the Independence Law Center filed an opening brief yesterday at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on behalf of Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church. The church is appealing a decision out of the Western District of Pennsylvania upholding Collier Township’s refusal of the church’s plans to construct a shrine alongside the cemetery they have held for over 50 years.
You can read the opening brief here.
“Collier Township cannot make rules for a church that do not apply to any other organization,” said Jeremy Dys, Senior Counsel for First Liberty Institute. “When town leadership turns rules into tools against a church, treating non-religious groups more favorably, they break the law. The First Amendment and Federal law is meant to prevent exactly this kind of discrimination against religious institutions.”
“It’s clear discrimination when a township applies strict limitations on a church but gives free reign to comparable secular activities and neighboring organizations,” said Joshua D. Davey of Troutman Pepper Locke LLP.
Chief Counsel at Independence Law Center Randall L. Wenger, Esq. said, “Congress passed the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act to prevent this exact kind of discrimination against churches. We hope the Third Circuit respects the law and corrects the lower court’s decision.”
Township ordinances deny churches—and shrine’s like the one contemplated by the church—the ability to exist as of right anywhere inside Collier Township. But amusement parks, ice rinks, fitness centers, and dog kennels do not face the same restrictions as the church. In fact, less than a mile up the road, the local carpenters’ union maintains a 19-acre campus with a 93,000-square-foot trade school complex that houses classrooms, conference rooms, offices, a cafeteria, event space, and a union hall with seating for at least 400 people.
In the brief, attorneys highlight some of the hostility faced by the church from Township leaders. In sworn testimony, one commissioner openly questioned the church’s honesty, admitting that the board’s concern was that the proposed shrine was less of a church and “really a shrine for Pro Life” that “was going to do all kinds of things for unwed mothers.” She also claimed that the town board had the right to reject a “project because of the religious views of the applicant” or “the nature of the religious service to be held in the building.” And, in an email to her fellow commissioners following the vote to reject the church’s application, she said that the Township “might have dodged a bullet.”
Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church is part of a small branch of the Catholic Church headquartered in Ukraine which worships according to traditions that arose a millennia ago in Eastern Europe. Ukrainian Catholic refugees fled from communism in the 20th Century, finding respite in Collier Township. They sought to worship in peace according to their own customs and traditions, and eventually, the refugees acquired a 41-acre parcel of land, part of which they transformed into a cemetery.
When the Church was ready to construct a shrine and related facilities for prayer and worship consistent with their liturgical tradition, the Township rejected the church’s proposal for its own property. The Township also added unlawful restrictions such as limiting the church for how long and when church bells could ring, for whom memorial services could be held, and on the size and height of proposed buildings.
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About First Liberty Institute
First Liberty Institute is a non-profit public interest law firm and the largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to defending religious freedom for all Americans.
To arrange an interview, contact Natalie Konstans at media@firstliberty.org or by calling 972-941-4453.
