Safe Injection Locale Can Argue Religion to Prevent Its Shutdown

A Philadelphia nonprofit seeking to provide opioid addicts with a safe, supervised place to use the drugs because of its stated belief in the sanctity of life can assert its religious rights as a defense to a federal lawsuit.

Safehouse can invoke the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the First Amendment’s free-exercise clause because the provisions protect both nonreligious and religious entities, the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit said Thursday. Concerns about the group’s proposed services don’t remove it from RFRA or constitutional protection, the court said.

The Third Circuit reversed the lower court’s dismissal of Safehouse’s ...