Islamic Center of Mississippi, Inc. v. City of Starkville’s Empirical Analysis
840 F.2d 293 · 1988
Citation profile
12 federal appellate · 1 district · 9 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 28 later decisions — most recently June 2017 · most notably Korean Buddhist Dae Won Sa Temple v. Sullivan (1998), Lighthouse Institute for Evangelism, Inc. v. City of Long Branch (2007)
12 federal appellate · 1 district · 9 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Monell v. Department of Social Services of City of New York · City of Cleburne Texas v. Cleburne Living Center · Cantwell v. State of Connecticut · Lemon v. Kurtzman · Wisconsin v. Yoder
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 28 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The Islamic Center contends that the zoning ordinance is invalid on its face because it forces Muslims to worship in the least acceptable parts of the City or in the county outside the City’s boundaries, that the City’s action in denying it an exception violates its members’ right to free exercise of their religion, and that the Board’s action was arbitrary, thus denying it and its members due process. The City maintains that the ordinance does not inhibit the free exercise of religion because churches may be built either in the R-E districts or outside the city limits. * * * * * * Regulatory statutes or ordinances that affect religious activity are constitutional so long as they impose no undue burden on the ability of the church or its members to carry out the observances of their faith. The district court’s opinion and the City’s brief both suggest that application of the zoning ordinance to the Islamic Center places no burden on it or its members because they can establish a mosque within walking distance of the campus outside the city limits or buy cars and ride to more distant places within the City. The suggestion is reminiscent of Anatole France’s comment on the majestic equality of the law that forbids all men, the rich as well as the poor, to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets and to steal bread. Laws that make churches, synagogues, and mosques accessible only to those affluent enough to travel by private automobile obviously burden the exercise of religion ”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“The City’s approval of applications for zoning exceptions by other churches suggests that it did not treat all applicants alike. This undermines the City’s contention that the Board denied a zoning exception to the Muslims solely for the purposes of traffic control and public safety. While lines must be drawn at some point, and, when traffic is congested, a few more cars may aggravate a bad situation, just as a final straw may break a camel’s back, the City has advanced no rational basis other than neighborhood opposition to show why the exception granted all other religious centers was denied the Islamic Center. As the Supreme Court observed in City of Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Center, [ 473 U.S. 432 , 105 S.Ct. 3249 , 87 L.Ed.2d 313 (1985) ] an equal protection case, neighbors’ negative attitudes or fears, unsubstantiated by factors properly cognizable in a zoning proceeding, are not a permissible basis for treating a home for the mentally retarded differently from other group or multi-unit housing institutions. There is even less justification for differentiating between familiar and unfamiliar religions. “Private biases may be outside the reach of the law, but the law cannot, directly or indirectly, give them effect.” Professor Laurie Reynolds has suggested that courts should require that ordinances requiring special use permits or exceptions for the use of property as churches contain specific, religiously neutral standards to reduce the likelihood of abuse and to requ”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“The City’s zoning ordinance requires final approval by the Board of Aider-men of the use of property for a church when that use requires an exception to the provisions of the ordinance. Consequently, the Planning Commission submitted its recommendation to the Board for approval. On November 22, 1983, Shwehdi received a telephone call from a reporter who worked for a television station, informing him that the Board of Aldermen would consider the Islamic Center’s request that evening and that, because of neighborhood opposition, the Board would likely reject the recommendation. * * * * * * The Board then voted unanimously to deny the exception without, so far as its minutes show, giving any reasons.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.