The Rocky Mountain Christian Church in Niwot.
LAW WEEK COLORADO
DENVER — A panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that Boulder County must allow Rocky Mountain Christian Church to expand its Niwot campus from 128,000 square feet to around 240,000 square feet, The Daily Camera reports.
The ruling upholds a November 2008 jury verdict that found the county had violated federal law by treating the church differently than a secular institution, “unreasonably limiting” religious institutions and imposing a “substantial burden” on religious practices.
The church was represented on appeal by Washington, D.C. attorney Kevin Baine of William & Connolly, joined on the brief by the firm’s Eva Petko Esber and Curtis Mahoney, Eric Rassbach and Lori Windham of the Washington, D.C.-based Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, and Tom Macdonald of Denver’s Otten Johnson Robinson Neff & Ragonetti.
Boulder Deputy County Attorney David Hughes represented the county, and was joined on the brief by Jean Dubofsky, H. Bissell Carey III, John Bauer, and Dwight Merriam of Robinson & Cole in Boston.
Rocky Mountain Christian Church v. Boulder County Commissioners
