The town of Troy, Idaho, is digging in its heels after the U.S. Justice Department launched a lawsuit against the city for alleged religious discrimination in its zoning.
In 2023, Troy’s city council decided not to give the far-right Christ Church a permit to hold worship services in its downtown space.
In a lawsuit filed in May 2025, the Justice Department said the town violated a federal law that forbids making zoning decisions based on religious ideology, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA).
"RLUIPA unequivocally forbids local governments from deciding zoning matters based on their dislike of certain religious groups," Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement. "The Department of Justice will not hesitate to file suit against jurisdictions that discriminate in land use matters on the basis of the applicants’ religious beliefs."
When Troy's city council took public comment on Christ Church's conditional use permit (CUP) application, the vast majority of comments received were against granting the permit, with many citing the church's beliefs as part of the reason for their opposition.
Christ Church is known for its strong emphasis on traditional gender norms and patriarchal structure. It also advocates for Christian control of the government.
In it initial denial, the council noted that "the great majority of the city residents and residents near this location oppose the granting of a CUP."
The denial reads in part, "The City of Troy welcomes any church to our community; however, the decision of the City Council is that the CUP application must be denied as the proposed use of the property for purposes of a church in the commercial zone of the City is against the will of the people and will have a negative effect on the City’s ability to grow its business community."
In the city of Troy's own filing at the end of August, City Attorney Todd Richardson argued the decision had nothing to do with the church or its stances.
"The church was saying they wanted to hold between one and three activities per week, having between 80 and 150 people per event," Richardson told SPR News. "Those are big events for a town of less than 1,000 people. We're talking 15% of the population, one to three times a week, in this two-block district without any off-street parking."
He said the church's need for parking would "overwhelm the zone for any businesses that are in the area."
The Justice Department isn't just wrong about the facts, Richardson said, they could be setting up a dangerous model for federal intervention in local democracies.
"It could be that they are trying to establish some precedent that they can come in and start governing little cities, that they can start taking over, and just by sheer use of force, overwhelming small jurisdictions and taking over the zoning code," he told SPR News. "And I think that's an abuse by the federal government."
"What's happening in Troy should concern every small town in America," Troy Mayor Bill Abbott said in a statement. "If the federal government can override our community's planning decisions, then local democracy becomes meaningless. We're not just defending Troy—we're defending the principle that communities have the right to preserve their character and economic future."
RLUIPA includes something called a "safe harbor provision," which Richardson said allows municipalities to work with the federal government to rectify any infractions before the town gets sued.
"We said, ‘How would you want us to fix it?’ ‘We can't tell you.’ ‘Do you have a proposed zoning code? Do you have a model zoning code? Do you have something you would reference us to that works?’ ‘No, we can't tell you that.’ How do you work with somebody that won't talk to you?" he said.
Before suing, the Justice Department did offer an alternative—a consent decree—but the city declined. Richardson said their solution would have meant admitting the city did something wrong, which he denies.
"All they're trying to do is say, 'See, we got a judgment,'" he said. "To what end? What repairs? What fix? 'Well, you guys have got to figure that out.' Well, we're going to figure it out anyway."
"It's almost like, 'Well, we need this decree to be able to put out a press release and say, 'See, we did this, we accomplished something through this federal bureaucracy,'" Richardson said. "But did you really?"
And all of this is now muddied by the fact that Troy has updated its city zoning ordinances since the affair began.
When the church elder who owns the downtown property in question applied for a permit to hold services there, Troy’s land use ordinance required a conditional use permit (CUP) from the city for any new church, regardless of where in the city it would be located.
Under the rules adopted in April, religious facilities and churches are among the 39 different uses now banned within the central business district.
Given the updated zoning ordinances, Richardson told SPR News there are three main ways he thinks this could end.
- Christ Church gets its CUP without any additional conditions, either by settlement or trial.
- Christ Church gets the CUP with additional conditions by settlement or trial.
- The Justice Department and Troy go to trial, and if Troy is successful, Christ Church could lose its CUP altogether and have to move.
In the event that the church does get its permit with extra conditions, because the property would be grandfathered into the new zoning rules, Richardson said the church would be unable to change the size or scope of its property use. If it does so, it would be forced to move, as its old, grandfathered-in agreement would no longer apply.
Until then, now that the city has filed its official response to the lawsuit, attorneys for the two sides can begin the discussions that lead to setting a trial date.
Still, Richardson said he's open to finding some kind of settlement before the parties go to court.
"I think there is a lot of opportunity here for this case to yet be resolved to short of trial," he told SPR News.
The Justice Department declined SPR's request for comment on this story.
