WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court refused Jan. 8 to hear the appeal of opponents to the recent construction of a Mormon temple near Boston.
Left untouched was a ruling by the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld a 1950 Massachusetts law that says zoning ordinances cannot ban the construction of buildings for religious use but may set requirements on size, height, parking and open space on a lot.
The law was challenged in 1998 after a Mormon church started construction of a 69,000-square-foot structure in Belmont, a suburb of Boston. Opponents said the law violated the Establishment Clause of the Constitution.
But a federal judge said the law does not create favoritism toward religion. It rather represents “a secular judgment that religious institutions are compatible with every other type of land use and thus will not detract from the quality of life in any neighborhood.”
Still pending is a separate lawsuit over the height of the temple’s planned 139-foot steeple.
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