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According to the latest issue of the U.S. DOJ Religious Freedom in Focus newsletter, a case we have discussed in the past, Bikur Cholim, Inc. v. Village of Suffern,  has now resulted in a consent decree between the government and the Village of Suffern. Under the terms of the consent decree reached on June 16, 2010 and approved by a federal judge in United States v. Suffern on June 17, 2010, the Shabbos house located next to the hospital that helps Sabbath-observant Jews visit sick relatives will be allowed to continue operations. This now resolves the  civil rights suit, brought by the United States under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) over the village’s efforts to shut down the Shabbos house. Under the terms of the consent decree, the Shabbos House will be able to continue operations and serve up to 14 guests on the Sabbath. The consent decree also requires village officials to undergo training on the requirements of RLUIPA, maintain records and meet reporting requirements. This is interesting as it is the first time this writer noticed a RLUIPA training requirement.  The Village, has, however, been in court on numerous other occasions with respect to alleged RLUIPA violations.

Bikur Cholim, which means “visiting the sick” in Hebrew, is an Orthodox Jewish organization that has operated a Shabbos house near Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern since 1988. The Shabbos house provides meals and lodging to observant Jews on the Sabbath and on holy days, which allows them to visit sick relatives in the hospital. It also allows Sabbath-observant patients who are discharged on Friday afternoons or Saturday to have somewhere to stay and keep Sabbath before going home. Those using the Shabbos house are forbidden by their faith from driving or engaging in any work on the Sabbath. The nearest hotel to the hospital is a 1.8 mile walk along a major commercial road with only intermittent sidewalks. Originally, the Shabbos house was on the grounds of the Good Samaritan Hospital, but hospital expansion required it to move to a house across from the hospital’s parking lot, in a residential district.

The village began enforcement action against Bikur Cholim on the ground that the Shabbos House is not a permitted use in a residential district, and denied it a variance. The United States filed suit in September 2006 under Section 2(a)(1) of RLUIPA, which provides that a government may not enforce a zoning law in a manner that imposes a substantial burden on religious exercise without a compelling government justification pursued through the least restrictive means. The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in June 2009 rejected the village’s arguments that the Shabbos house was not “religious exercise” under RLUIPA and ordered the case to move forward.  The consent decree described above now closes this matter.