- In 2013, the Amish people in Fillmore County began installing sewage treatment plants.
- Instead, they want to reuse water for irrigation or treat it through less sophisticated systems.
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Friday sided with an Amish community that is religiously challenging a Minnesota county request that its members install sewage treatment plants.
The Supreme Court overturned a state court ruling that was on the county side and asked the state courts to retry the case in light of its recent ruling in favor of a Catholic foster home in Philadelphia that refused to investigate same-sex couples check.
Since 2013, Fillmore County has required the Swartzentruber-Amish, who reject modern technology as part of their religion, for sewage treatment plants to treat the wastewater from laundry, bathing and cooking – known as gray water. Instead, the Amish want to reuse this water for irrigation or treat it through less sophisticated systems.
In a statement consistent with the Supreme Court ruling, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch said the state courts misunderstood a federal law dealing with the application of such land use rules to religious entities. It was the most recent example of the Supreme Court entering into a competition with an alleged state interest in advocating freedom of religion.
“County officials have subjected the Amish to reprisals and inspections of their homes and farms. They have attacked the sincerity of Amish beliefs,” wrote Gorsuch. “In this country neither the Amish nor anyone else should have to choose between their farms and their beliefs.”
Gorsuch said state courts should reconsider the case in the light of a unanimous decision by the Supreme Court on June 17 that a Catholic foster home in Philadelphia might turn away gay and lesbian couples because same-sex marriages conflict with their religious beliefs. The Supreme Court also repealed several coronavirus ordinances this year that restricted visits to churches and synagogues.
As in the Philadelphia case, Gorsuch said that Minnesota’s septic system at issue had an exception and that because of that, the courts must carefully review a law that incriminates religious organizations or activities while providing exceptions for secular ones.
“In Minnesota,” wrote Gorsuch, “those who[y]’Their gray water can lead it directly onto the land. ”
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Law signed by President Bill Clinton in 2000 requires governments to exercise caution when zoning and other property rights affect religious establishments. In order to enforce such regulations, a government – like a county – must have an overriding interest in it, and its rule must be tailored as closely as possible to that interest.
The Amish plaintiffs said that while Fillmore County has a general interest in wastewater treatment, it is not necessary on the rural farms where they live. They also said 20 more states allow gray water reuse systems in place of septic tanks. Raw sewage is out of the question as the community uses outhouse instead of toilets.
“If they are forced to choose between their beliefs and the farms that make a living, they will choose their beliefs,” an Amish attorney told judges. “That is the decision the government is forcing them to make.”
Local officials countered that they need the systems even if raw sewage is not involved, since gray water alone “can contain pathogens, viruses, bacteria and other substances harmful to human health and the environment”.
The Minnesota Supreme Court last year declined to review decisions by the lower state courts that sided with the government on the case. Four members of the Amish community appealed to the US Supreme Court in January.
Religious freedom claims have been very successful in the Supreme Court in recent years. The judges have in some situations allowed taxpayers ‘money to go to religious institutions, exempted employers with religious objections from the obligation to provide health insurance for contraception, and a massive Latin cross on government property just a few minutes’ drive from the national capital.
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