August 14, 2009 - 3:20pm

“You shouldn’t need a permit to pray,” says Shenna Bellows, Executive Director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union. 

That is why the Maine Civil Liberties Union Foundation filed suit against the City of Portland yesterday. A group of Afghan Muslims had wished to use a former television repair shop on

Washington Avenue
to hold prayer services, religious study, and other religious observances.  The City, pointing to zoning ordinances that regulate the use of property as a “church or other place of worship” has forbid the group from using the property, even though the owner bought the property three years ago for this specific purpose. 

The MCLU is asking the Court to tell the City of Portland that, when local zoning ordinances come in conflict with federal law and the U.S. Constitution, the zoning ordinances must give way.

“Freedom of religion is the first freedom listed in the Bill of Rights,” said MCLU Legal Director Zachary Heiden.  “The government is not allowed to impose harsh restrictions on that freedom, but unfortunately that is exactly what the City of Portland had done.”

This is not the first time that the City of Portland’s restrictions on religious land use have come under attack.  In 2008, the MCLU worked with lawyers and religious leaders from across the State to protect the religious freedom of Rabbi Moshe Wilansky, who had been hosting study and prayer in his home for more than 20 years. Unfortunately, while the City ultimately acquiesced in that case, they have remained intransigent in this one.  

The MCLU works to ensure that the essential freedom to practice religion is protected.To learn more about the ACLU and Freedom of Religion and Belief, click here.

Further details about the case can be found in the MCLU Press release, and in today's Portland Press Herald.

The text of the complaint is also available online.

 

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