God and the Land: A Holy War Between Religious Exercise and Community Planning and Development

Abstract

This article is a brief introduction to The Albany Government Law Review sympoisum on God and the Land. This piece sets forth a brief history of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) setting the backdrop for the controversy that has surrounded the Act and its impact on religious entities and municipalities. Since the enactment of RLUIPA, the floodgates have burst open with litigation in attempts to clarify many ambiguities in the statute. The remainder of the piece provides a sneak preview of the articles conatined in The Albany Government Law Review by Professors Angela Carmella, Marci Hamilton, Shelley Ross Saxer and Elizabeth Reilly, and by practitioners Wendi Kellington, Dwight Merriam and Daniel Dalton.

Keywords: religious land uses, RLUIPA, zoning and religion, religious use

JEL Classification: K11, K39