U.S. Department
of Justice
United States v. City of Des Plaines, Illinois (N.D. Ill.)
On June 6, 2017, the United States and the City of Des Plaines, IL, entered into a settlement agreement resolving the United States’ claims in United States v. City of Des Plaines, Illinois (N.D. Ill.) that it violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA) by denying a rezoning request by an Islamic group to use a vacant office building as a place of worship. The United States’ complaint, which was filed on September 30, 2015, alleged substantial burden, equal terms, and discrimination. The settlement agreement requires the City to obtain training, to provide notice to the public that it adheres to RLUIPA, establishes a RLUIPA complaint process, and places limitations on the discretion the City can exercise in its consideration of religious land use applications, among other requirements. In February 2017, the U.S. District Court for the North District of Illinois ruled that the United States’ claims should proceed to trial, and further ruled that the City misapplied its parking regulations to impose heightened parking requirements on the Islamic group that were not imposed on non-Muslim groups, and that the City did not use the least restrictive means in addressing purported concerns with the group’s rezoning request.
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