The U.S. Department of Justice announced on Wednesday that it has filed a lawsuit against Jackson Township in Ocean County, N.J., accusing its planning board with “religious discrimination” and “antisemitic conduct” towards Orthodox Jewish residents.
The complaint, filed in the District of New Jersey, alleges that the township passed ordinances in a manner that discriminated against the Orthodox Jewish community, violating the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) and the Fair Housing Act (FHA).
RLUIPA is a federal law that protects religious institutions from unduly burdensome or discriminatory land-use regulations.
Both ordinances expressly prohibit dormitories throughout Jackson, making it impossible for religious boarding schools such as Orthodox Jewish yeshivot to operate there, according to the DOJ.
