October 9, 2007
Court Says Freemasons Fall Under Religious Protection Law
by Heather Donckels
Religion News Service
Freemasonry may rank with Christianity, Judaism and Islam as an official form of "religious exercise," a California court of appeals suggested in a ruling on Oct. 3.
As such, Masons would fall under the protections of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA), the landmark law that says government may not infringe on religious buildings without a compelling interest.
"We see no principled way to distinguish the earnest pursuit of these (Masonic) principles ... from more widely acknowledged modes of religious exercise," the statement said.
The case involves the Los Angeles Scottish Rite Cathedral (LASRC) and the Scottish Rite Cathedral Association of Los Angeles (SRCALA). The court concluded that "chief" Masonic principles include "the reverence of a Supreme Being and the embrace of other forms of religious worship."
The court said it could find "no decisions analyzing whether Masonic practices are sufficiently religious in nature to qualify under RLUIPA,"
which says the government cannot "impose or implement a land use regulation in a manner that imposes a substantial burden on the religious exercise of a person."
The court's statement countered a lower court's opinion that "the `Freemason' organization is (not) a religion."
While the Masons may have received a victory as a religious group, the court ultimately ruled that the RLUIPA law did not apply in the specific case at hand.
In 2002, LASRC began leasing the Scottish Rite Cathedral, a Masonic temple on Wilshire Boulevard, from the association. Despite city codes that restrict the use of the cathedral to Masonic-related activities, the group rented out the building for non-Masonic events, including concerts and dance performances. As a result, the Los Angeles city council withdrew the Cathedral's certificate of occupancy in 2005.
In response, the two Masonic associations went to court, claiming that their rights under RLUIPA were being harmed. The lower court initially rejected the case, but the appeals court ruled that since the cathedral was used for "a melange of cultural and commercial events with a declining nexus to Masonic principles or other religious exercise,"
the Scottish Rite organizations could not claim protection under RLUIPA's "religious exercise" clause.
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