Lacey's recent decision to put into place a restrictive homeless encampment rule will likely land the city in court. Tent city ordinances in Western Washington are popular fodder for the federal and state court system, usually pitting local governments against churches on the grounds of the free expression of religion.

"The whole idea of reaching out to the poor and needy is part of our Jewish tradition," said James Mirel, senior rabbi at the Temple B'nai Torah to the Seattle Times in 2005.

One of the most interesting details in the run up to the city council's vote on the ordinance was the closed door session a few months back between the city attorney and the council. What advice did Ken Ahlf give his clients? Probably, be careful guys, you might get sued.

Ahlf had similar advice in the public back last August when a council subcommittee first took up the topic:

Ken stated that in order to amend the code, the Planning Commission would need to make a recommendation to the City Council. He noted the state allows cities to pass a moratorium or interim zoning for six months, and then for a period of one year. He noted in King County, court rulings have upheld the rights of churches to exercise their freedom of religion and host homeless encampments as part of their church mission.

These legal battles between local governments and churches are not all that rare and (in Western Washington at least) turn on two concepts: the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act and Washington's greater protection for the practice of religion under our state constitution.

The RLUIP has been used to argue that local governments have very limited scope in being able to tell churches how they can minister to homeless. Here and here are a list of cases.

Here is another discussion of the state's greater protection for the practice of religion.

Currently a lawsuit by a King County church against their local city is winding its way through the state court system, and will be heard by the state Supreme Court in May. Lower courts disagreed so far with the church (beware, pdf):

The Appeals Court ruling affirmed the June 12, 2006 trial court order to evict the Tent City 4 homeless encampment from the church's property during the encampment’s 90 day stay in the summer of 2006.

...

"Ministering to persons in urgent need is fundamental to our religious beliefs and how we live out our faith. Our country honors the work of faith-based groups to step in and meet human needs where governments and communities fall short. We believe that our US and State Constitutions and the law support our religious practice."

This case is about religious practice. However, the Appeals Court ruled that NUCC's ministry to the homeless in Tent City 4 did not meet the requirements of religious practice under the United States Constitution. The Appeals Court also failed to analyze NUCC’s claims under the Washington State Constitution. Furthermore, the Appeals Court affirmed the trial court ruling that the City's summary attempt to prevent NUCC from ministering to the homeless on its property was not a "substantial burden" for its exercise of its religious faith, and hence was not protected under the U.S. Constitution and Federal law.

That the supreme court (beware pdf) decided to pick up this case speaks to the church's contention that the lower courts didn't really look at the freedom of religion angle.

The question of whether churches in Lacey have a problem with the ordinance was answered by this morning's op-ed in the Olympian:

We asked a spokesman from each whether they could have hosted Camp Quixote under restrictions imposed by the Lacey ordinance:

"Absolutely not," said Rodger Johnson of First United Methodist Church.

"No," said Pastor David James of St. John's Episcopal Church.

"We couldn't do it," said Mary Olney-Loyd, pastor of First Christian Church. "The requirements in Lacey are prohibitive. I'm so very sad they've done this."

"It would be impossible," said Mark Dowdy, pastor of United Churches. "It will absolutely stop tent city from landing in the jurisdiction of Lacey and we testified to that."

Tim Ransom, spokesperson for Olympia Unitarian Universalist Congregation, the current host of Camp Quixote said, "The answer is no. We don't have the room in our church to have that many people inside ... without giving up our normal church operation."

Cleary, from what we can assume the city attorney told the council, what lawsuits have been filed already in other cities and the opinion of Lacey church leaders, the Lacey City Council decided that the courts where the right place to settle this matter.