A North Carolina county has argued that its legal battle with former Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear’s The Summit Church over a proposed campus expansion centers on the limits of federal court authority rather than allegations of religious discrimination.
Steven Bader, representing the Chatham County Board of Commissioners, made the argument Tuesday before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. The county is appealing a preliminary injunction issued last year following its rejection of the church’s request to rezone nearly 100 acres for its Chapel Hill campus.
The Summit Church sued county officials in early 2025, alleging that the denial infringed on its "civil rights as enshrined in the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and codified in the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act."
The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), enacted in 2000, is a federal statute designed to protect religious institutions from discriminatory zoning regulations.
During the hearing, Bader maintained that federal judges cannot compel local authorities to make specific legislative zoning decisions, even when resolving claims brought under RLUIPA.
“In this way, this is not a case about religious discrimination, as my colleagues would have it. It's a case about separation of powers.”
Bader pointed to the anti-commandeering doctrine, which restricts federal interference in state and local governance. Circuit Judge A. Marvin Quattlebaum Jr., however, questioned whether the principle prevents federal courts from requiring state officials to comply with federal law.
Elbert Lin, an attorney for The Summit Church, disputed the county’s position that “RLUIPA does not authorize federal courts to compel legislative zoning changes.”
“There's two problems with that. The first one, I think, is the one Judge Boardman has identified, which is that at this point in the case, there is no order compelling them to legislatively rezone, and I think equally important, there may never be one,” Lin said.
The church has requested judicial relief that would require approval of its proposed rezoning and site plan, as well as a declaration that the county’s rejection violated federal religious land-use protections.
U.S. District Judge William Osteen Jr. previously determined that the church had demonstrated a likelihood of prevailing on its claim that the county’s denial substantially burdened its religious exercise. The preliminary injunction, however, stopped short of ordering the county to approve the rezoning request.
The U.S. Department of Justice, which filed a statement of interest supporting the church in April, also participated in Tuesday’s hearing. DOJ attorney Noah Sacks warned that the county’s legal interpretation could undermine federal enforcement of RLUIPA.
