Becket Fund moves to block Chicago from bulldozing

May 30, 2003

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, together with a group of attorneys from Chicago and Washington, D.C. is asking a federal district court to block the City of Chicago and its mayor, Richard M. Daley, from the "imminent destruction" of two cemeteries located immediately adjacent to the southwest corner of O'Hare International Airport.

The O'Hare expansion plan would violate a variety of state laws, including statutes that protect cemeteries and the state's Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and was challenged on that basis in an earlier lawsuit in state court. But at Mayor Daley's urging, the Illinois legislature is on the verge of passing a bill that would amend all of the state laws standing in the way, removing protections from land the city wants for the airport. Should the bill pass and be signed into law over the weekend, there is a serious risk that the Mayor would order bulldozers to begin moving within hours, as he did in March, "bulldozing Meigs Field in the middle of the night, while courts were closed and lawyers were asleep."

The lawsuit filed today in federal court charges that the airport expansion would violate a number of federal laws, including the U.S. Constitution and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. "It is difficult to imagine a more flagrant example of legislative targeting of the religious activity of a particular group than the [proposed law's] targeting of St. Johannes [originally known as "God's Acre"] and Rest Haven cemeteries," the Becket Fund brief argues.

The plaintiffs in today's action (St. John's United Church of Christ, which owns St. Johannes Cemetery; Rest Haven Cemetery; the Villages of Bensenville and Elk Grove; and several individuals) are asking the court to issue a Temporary Restraining Order and a Preliminary Injunction, which would block the city from any move to take or bulldoze property in the area pending resolution of the lawsuit.

In addition to The Becket Fund, the plaintiffs are represented by three Illinois law firms: Karaganis, White & Magel; Walsh Knippen Knight & Diamond; and Helm & Associates; and by Shaw Pittman, of Washington, D.C. The text of the complaint, motions and briefs filed today can be found at the Becket Fund's main website, www.becketfund.org.

Relevant Cases

• St. John's United Church of Christ v. City of Chicago