Features

The California Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the constitutionality of a state law that exempts religious organizations from local preservation laws and lets them raze and replace historic church buildings. 

The court, voting 4-3, said the 1994 law did not provide improper state assistance or endorsement of religion. 

“The exemption does not provide governmental assistance to religious organizations carrying out their religious mission,” Justice Marvin R. Baxter wrote for the majority. “By providing the exemption, the state simply stepped out of the way of the religious property owner.” 

The 1994 law stops cities and counties from enforcing historic landmark preservation laws against noncommercial property owned by religious organizations. A religious organization can alter or demolish a historic building if it decides the change is necessary for religious or financial purposes. 

In a dissent, Justice Stanley Mosk wrote that the Legislature is mingling in religious affairs while granting the religious groups broader powers than available to the lay public. 

“They impermissibly single out religious organizations for a special exemption from generally applicable historic landmark preservation laws at the expense of other property owners and to the detriment of the local community’s ability to preserve its history and character,” Mosk wrote. 

The law was sponsored by then-Assembly Speaker Willie Brown to aid San Francisco Archbishop John Quinn, who was in the process of closing nine Catholic churches with damaged foundations and declining congregations.  

Some parishioners threatened to sue under landmark preservation laws. 

Brown is now mayor of San Francisco, which challenged the law. 

Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Joe Gray ruled in 1996 that the law established an unconstitutional state preference for religious organizations. 

But the 3rd District Court of Appeal overruled him last year and said the law merely removes a potential burden from the practice of religion by allowing religious organizations to decide which of their buildings to preserve. 

San Francisco and preservation groups said in court papers that the appellate decision “gives the Legislature a green light to exempt religious organizations, for purely economic reasons, from all kinds of legislation.” 

The case is East Bay Asian Local Development Corp. vs. California, S077396.