Maui Temple Loses Fight Over Jury Burden Finding in Permit Case

The Ninth Circuit upheld a jury’s verdict determining a Hawaii temple’s religious rights weren’t substantially burdened when it was denied a land-use permit, despite the fact that a judge should have decided the issue of law.

The district court erred in sending the substantial-burden question under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act to the jury rather than deciding it itself, but the jury reached the right conclusion, Judge Salvador Mendoza Jr. said for the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, affirming the judgment. “Looking at the totality of the circumstances, we conclude as a matter of ...