Missionaries of Saint John the Baptist v. Frederic (U.S.)
The Missionaries of Saint John the Baptist, a Catholic religious community, seek to build a grotto like the one in Lourdes, France to honor the Blessed Virgin Mary. Although the county zoning board approved Saint John’s application to build the shrine, state courts reversed that decision. The courts concluded that denying Saint John permission to build the grotto did not substantially burden Saint John’s religious exercise in violation of the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act because, in their view, the Missionaries could still be faithful Catholics without the proposed grotto.
Notre Dame Law School’s Lindsay and Matt Moroun Religious Liberty Clinic has filed several amicus briefs in support of the Missionaries’ freedom to use their property for religious exercise. The Clinic’s most recent brief urges the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case to provide lower courts much-needed guidance on how to properly evaluate “substantial burdens” under RLUIPA, which protects all forms of religious exercise.
As the Clinic’s brief explains, protection of religious exercise cannot depend on a court’s own evaluation of the importance, centrality, or necessity of a person’s religious beliefs—a bedrock principle that is deeply rooted in the First Amendment’s Religion Clauses and codified into RLUIPA. In spite of this principle, there is widespread confusion among lower courts about the meaning of “substantial burden” under the statute, which too often undermines the statute’s protections.
Read Our Briefs
- Amicus Brief (U.S.) (Apr. 27, 2026)
- Amicus Brief (Ky.) (Oct. 21, 2024)
Learn More About Our Work
Court Decision
State Supreme Court (Commonwealth of Kentucky)
- Opinion (Dec. 18, 2025)
Appellate Court (Commonwealth of Kentucky Court of Appeals)
-
Opinion (Dec. 1, 2023)