肯塔基州一项地方分区条例是否合法引发争议。该条例禁止一家天主教堂在其地产旁修建宗教圣龛。此案将上诉至美国最高法院。
A dispute over whether a local zoning ordinance in Kentucky that prohibited a Catholic church from building a religious shrine next to its property is legal is headed to the Supreme Court.
周四，最高法院大法官同意受理“圣约翰浸信会传教士教会”的申请。该教会位于辛辛那提郊区，此前未能获得许可，无法在毗邻地块上修建一座供奉圣母玛利亚的大型岩洞圣龛。
The justices agreed on Thursday to take up the request from Missionaries of Saint John the Baptist, a church in the Cincinnati suburbs that was denied a permit to construct a large grotto honoring the Virgin Mary in an adjacent lot.
争议焦点在于，拒绝发放许可证是否违反了《宗教土地使用及机构化人员法》（RLUIPA）。该法部分旨在防止分区法律对宗教活动造成“实质性负担”。
At issue is whether that denial violates the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), which is designed in part to protect against zoning laws that impose a “substantial burden” on religious exercise.
帕克希尔斯分区委员会最初允许该教堂推进项目计划，尽管镇上的一项条例将特定区域的土地用途限定为主干道用途。
The Park Hills zoning board initially allowed the church to move forward with the plans, despite a town ordinance that restricts land use for certain spaces to arterial streets.
此前担心这座39英尺高的岩洞圣龛会加剧交通问题的邻居提起了诉讼。他们主张，批准附条件使用许可违反了州法和联邦法。一名州法官支持该教堂，但肯塔基州上诉法院推翻了原判。
Neighbors who had raised concerns that the 39-foot grotto would worsen traffic problems sued, arguing that granting the conditional use permit violated state and federal law. A state judge sided with the church, but the Kentucky Court of Appeals reversed.
肯塔基州最高法院维持上述判决，认为该条例并未对教堂的权利造成实质性侵害，因为教堂可以在现有地块上修建一座较小的圣龛。法院还指出，该教堂在申请许可证之前就知道这项禁令。
Affirming that ruling, the Kentucky Supreme Court said the ordinance did not substantially infringe on the church’s rights because it could construct a smaller shrine on its existing plot. It also noted that the church was aware of the prohibition before it sought the permit.
该教堂在提交给美国最高法院的申请书中称，这是对《宗教土地使用及机构化人员法》的误解，并请求大法官明确该法保护宗教活动的适用范围。
The church argued in its petition to the U.S. Supreme Court that was a misunderstanding of the RLUIPA statute and asked the justices to clarify the scope of its protections.
“下级法院的判决加剧了联邦和州上诉法院之间围绕何种情形构成‘实质性负担’的严重分歧——这是一个早已得到公认且长期存在的判例冲突，”代表该教堂的律师写道。“鉴于《宗教土地使用和机构化人员法》在保护宗教自由方面发挥着关键作用，最高法院应准予复审，以澄清该法在土地使用问题上的适用。”代表邻居一方的律师则主张，教堂提交的申请并非审理此案的适当途径。
“The decision below exacerbates the deep fractures on what qualifies as a ‘substantial burden’ among federal and state appellate courts—a well-recognized and longstanding conflict of authority,” lawyers representing the church wrote. “Given RLUIPA’s critical role in preserving religious liberty, this Court should grant review to clarify its application in the land-use context.”Lawyers for the neighbors had argued the church’s petition was not the proper vehicle to take up the matter.
本案现已成为本审理期最高法院将审理的数起涉及宗教自由的案件之一，预计将于明年夏季作出裁决。
The case is now one of several cases implicating religious liberty that will be heard by the Supreme Court this term, with decisions expected by summer of next year.