Zion Lutheran Church in Long Valley, New Jersey, is one of two churches that have won a victory against county officials who were excluding them from a historic preservation grant program. | Credit: Zeete, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons CNA Staff, Dec 4, 2024 / 16:40 pm Two churches in New Jersey have won a victory against county officials who were excluding them from a historic preservation grant program, a ruling that comes after a key Catholic religious liberty clinic backed their lawsuit. First Liberty Institute, a Texas-based religious liberty legal group, said in a Monday press release that the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey issued a preliminary injunction against Morris County ordering officials to allow two churches to participate in the county’s Historic Preservation Trust Fund. In her ruling this week , District Judge Evelyn Padin said the case “illustrates the inherent tension” between the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom and its barring of government endorsement of religion. The court determined that a “likely free exercise clause violation” stemmed from the county’s policy. The injunction does not order the churches to receive county funding but rather to make them eligible for it. […]

By : Markus McDowell