article_snippet.sent: In Chicago, an association of 40 churches called the Civil Liberties for Urban Believers found it too onerous to erect houses of worship in business and commercial zones.
article_snippet.sent: The ministers needed a special use permit, but such permits were often thwarted by aldermen or it was too bureaucratic and costly to obtain one, the church leaders claimed.
article_snippet.sent: So the pastors sued the city of Chicago in 2000, alleging that the city of Chicago zoning laws violated the Illinois religious freedom statute, the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act and the U.S. Constitution.
article_snippet.sent: Defeated, church leaders were angry.
article_snippet.sent: The forty (40) churches in C.L.U.B. and certainly people of all faiths throughout Chicago are outraged by the majority opinion which neuters the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act passed unanimously by Congress in 2000," Apostle Theodore Wilkinson, the group's chairman, said in a statement.
article_snippet.sent: Also alarming is The U.S. Supreme Court's conclusion that Chicago's religious assemblies have no free speech protection from zoning laws.
highlights_snippet.sent: A group of Chicago pastors takes on City Hall over A group of Chicago pastors permits for new churches and loses .