Holly Springs, U.S.A. — Liberty Institute vows to continue with the defense of Opulent Life Church after the City of Holly Springs surprisingly announced it amended its discriminatory ordinance.

After conceding that their original city zoning ordinance violated federal law, opposing counsel representing the City advised the Court that the City had adopted yet another discriminatory ordinance that continues to prohibit the church from occupying space on the town square. Opposing counsel conceded that the Fifth Circuit now can decide the validity of the new ordinance.

Liberty Institute anticipates the Fifth Circuit will request additional briefing on the legality of the new ordinance, so the Court can rule on whether it also violates federal law and the First Amendment.

“We will continue to defend the religious liberty rights of Opulent Life Church against the City of Holly Springs’ new ordinance that is as discriminatory as, if not worse than, the original ordinance,” said Hiram Sasser, Liberty Institute’s Director of Litigation. “Churches should be able to grow and expand free from discrimination. Placing special burdens on them is unfair, unconstitutional and illegal.”

Then, Sasser added, “The City appears to be making good on the statement its counsel made to the U.S. Magistrate Judge that it will never allow a church on the town square.”

In the case Opulent Life Church; Telsa DeBerry v. City of Holly Springs, Mississippi , the Church sought to move to a new space in the town square area of Holly Springs, Miss. Due to zoning restrictions, the city told the church it must get the approval of 60 percent of local property owners and the city’s mayor before it can exist in the downtown area. This ordinance only applied to churches. Businesses and other groups were not subject to this requirement.

In January 2012, Liberty Institute filed a lawsuit on behalf of Opulent Life Church and its pastor, Telsa DeBerry, and sought a preliminary injunction, which the federal district court unfortunately denied. In March 2012, Liberty Institute filed an appeal, arguing that the city’s zoning ordinance unfairly singles out churches, and asking the court to reverse the lower court’s decision.

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The Council on American-Islamic Relations and United Firm of Carolina Law announced the filing of a lawsuit against Delta Air Lines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines for removing two Islamic religious leaders, or imams, from a flight to a conference on Islamophobia in Charlotte, North Carolina, earlier this year after the pilot refused to fly with them on board.

CAIR and UFC Law attorneys announced the lawsuit at a news conference earlier today at Memphis International Airport in Tennessee. Interfaith leaders also took part in the news conference.

The lawsuit states in part:

“Despite having been cleared twice by TSA agents, Defendants’ pilot took the matter into his own hands when he chose to eject Plaintiffs from the flight based on arbitrary and capricious reasons, including his personal preconceived notions of race, religion, and national origin.”

According to the lawsuit, the defendants violated both a federal law preventing an air carrier from subjecting a passenger to “discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, or ancestry” and a Tennessee law that prohibits denying an individual the “full and equal enjoyment of the… advantages and accommodations of a place of public accommodation… on the grounds of race, creed, color, religion, sex, age, or national origin.”

The lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction that would prohibit the defendants from “singling out passengers for mistreatment based on their perceived race, color, ethnicity, religion, alienage, ancestry, and/or national origin” and order them to “take all affirmative steps necessary to remedy the effects of the illegal, discriminatory conduct described herein and to prevent similar occurrences in the future.” It also seeks attorneys’ fees and compensatory and punitive damages against Delta and Atlantic Southeast Airlines “in an amount to be determined at trial.”

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