Guru Nanak Sikh Society of Yuba City v. County of Sutter
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
456 F.3d 978 (2006)
After Sutter County rejected Guru Nanak's (plaintiff) first conditional use permit application over traffic and noise concerns, the group applied again for a larger, more remote agricultural parcel addressing those concerns, only to have the Board of Supervisors reverse the Planning Division's approval on "leapfrog development" grounds -- despite other churches already operating on similarly zoned agricultural land elsewhere in the county. The district court granted Guru Nanak summary judgment and ordered the county to issue the permit; the county appealed.
Whether denying a religious organization a permit to build on specified portions of land constitutes a substantial burden on the exercise of religion.