Area attorney fights for 'religious freedom'

| Thursday, October 31, 2002 10:00 PM PST ∞

WILLIAM FINN BENNETT
Staff Writer

TEMECULA ---- After years of fighting court battles for "religious freedom" in California, local attorney Robert Tyler recently obtained the financing he needed to found a nonprofit law firm that will enable him to carry on the struggle full time and nationwide, he said Thursday.

The organization, The California Advocates for Faith and Freedom, also known as CalAdvocates, is one of only two organizations in the state providing this type of legal service without charge, Tyler said.

In July, the Alliance Defense Fund, a national association of Christian lawyers, approached Tyler and asked him to start a nonprofit organization to continue his work full time, he said, offering to finance his operations for the first year.

When the year is up, Tyler said, he is hoping his nonprofit will have a broad enough base of support for him to continue dedicating his efforts to religious causes.

Tyler said he first opened his private practice, Tyler & Associates, in Temecula seven years ago. During those seven years, he said, he frequently found himself handling a variety of religious freedom cases at no charge to the client, simply because he believed so much in their cause.

"This is something I have felt compelled to do for many years as a result of the cultural war being waged against Judeo-Christian values in our country," Tyler said.

Many of the cases Tyler has been handling have churches fighting for city zoning changes under a federal law passed in 2000 known as the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.

That law states that no government entity can enact a land-use regulation that imposes a "substantial burden" on people practicing their religion.

He is now working to bring zoning ordinances in the village of Wolverine Lake, Mich., into compliance with the federal law. In that case, the village initially denied New Song Community Church the right to occupy a property that houses a bar. "The village preferred a commercial use that generates tax revenue over a house of worship," Tyler said.

But under pressure from Tyler for the community to bring its zoning ordinances into compliance with the federal law, the area's planning commission recently recommended approval for the church, said New Song's pastor, the Rev. Brent Hanson.

"Tyler was decisive," Hanson said by phone Thursday. "He was instrumental in causing them to consider making changes in the ordinances."

And he's successfully battled ordinances in other areas as well.

Earlier this year, after Tyler filed a lawsuit against the city of El Cajon on behalf of a church there, the City Council changed its zoning laws to allow churches to set up in all of the city's commercial zones without a conditional-use permit, a city official said Thursday.

A conditional-use permit allows a business or other type of establishment to open in a part of the city not normally zoned for that type of activity if it meets certain conditions to reduce possible effects on residents and nearby businesses.

Tyler said that cities frequently use zoning ordinances to exclude churches from various locations, in violation of the federal law. He said that cities often don't want churches in residential zones because they supposedly generate too much traffic. At the same time, city planning commissions often exclude churches from commercial zones because they don't want the city to lose sales tax revenue, and they also don't want churches in industrial zones, because of the potential hazards posed by manufacturing and other industries. "So where do churches go?" he asked.

But Tyler said he's fighting for more than just liberal zoning policies for churches.

In May, Tyler represented a Riverside County employee who was fired by the county for refusing to distribute the "morning-after" pill at a county medical facility. Tyler won the case when jurors decided the woman's constitutional rights to free speech and religion had been violated.

And he is currently representing a private San Francisco company that is suing that city because of a city ordinance requiring any company that does business with the city to grant medical benefits to same-sex partners of their employees, he said. Tyler said that case, currently in the federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, should end up before the U.S. Supreme Court in the near future.

Tyler is also representing a Lake Elsinore church in a lawsuit against that city for violations of the federal law on land-use regulation. Tyler filed the lawsuit on behalf of Elsinore Christian Center in May 2001. The case is still awaiting an outcome. However, the city in October changed its zoning ordinances to make it easier for churches to set up in certain zones. The city attorney said that the decision was unrelated to the lawsuit, while admitting, however, that the move was motivated by the city's desire to come into compliance with the federal legislation.

Tyler said his firm is also looking to tackle issues such as the use of the name of Jesus Christ in invocations before city council meetings and the right of public school students to express their faith without discrimination. He said he is now looking into a recent incident at a local school where a student was told he could not bring his Bible to school.

The Rev. Jim Hilbrant, with the Elsinore Christian Center, said that Tyler's work is sorely needed in the United States. "We (churches) have run up against an impasse as far as our rights as Christians and Americans," he said. "Having Bob there is helping us appeal to the government and our court system. What he is doing is very much needed in this country, because our right to worship is being threatened."

Contact staff writer William Finn Bennett at (909) 676-4315, Ext. 2624, or wbennett@californian.com.

11/1/02