United States Fourth Circuit

In a taxpayer's 42 U.S.C. section 1983 suit against a county, Commonwealth of Virginia, a church, and a developer, claiming that the county's involvement in the church's development of apartments on the church-owned parcel of land violates the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution, district court's grant of defendants' motion to dismiss is affirmed where: 1) no factual allegations exist that support a claim that the county sought to advance the church's faith, to spread the message of the church, or to become entangled in its religious affairs; 2) the county's only interest was to accomplish the secular end of having affordable housing constructed in a highly urban area of the county; and 3) to the extent that the church and the county pursued their own goals through a secular corporation, this interaction does not support a plausible claim that the county acted so as to make law establishing religion.

Appellate Information

• Argued 09/22/2010
• Decided 12/23/2010
• Published 12/23/2010

Judges

• NIEMEYER

Court

• United States Fourth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Andrew S. Oldham, James Patrick Taves