Pepperdine Caruso Law Religious Liberty Clinic Secures Legal Victory in United States District Court of New Jersey Case

The Pepperdine Caruso School of Law’s Hugh and Hazel Darling Foundation Religious Liberty Clinic achieved a significant legal victory, securing a preliminary injunction in federal court to protect its clients, Mendham Methodist Church and Zion Lutheran Church Long Valley. The case challenges a policy that barred churches from participating in a government-run historic preservation grant program, a policy the court ruled violated the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.

The United States District Court of New Jersey struck down a Morris County policy that allowed theaters, Masonic lodges, and restaurants to receive historic preservation funding while excluding religious institutions. The court ruled that the exclusion constitutes unconstitutional discrimination against religious organizations.

“This is a historic win for religious organizations in New Jersey and across the country,” said professor Eric Rassbach, faculty director of the clinic. “It was always wrong to disqualify religious organizations from receiving historic preservation funds solely because they were religious. The district court rightly explained that the Constitution forecloses this religious discrimination.”

The case, Mendham Methodist Church v. Morris County, marks the first direct representation by the Religious Liberty Clinic, showcasing the clinic’s growing influence in defending First Amendment rights across the nation. 

Morris County had previously provided historic preservation grants to houses of worship but ceased the practice following a 2018 New Jersey Supreme Court ruling that deemed it unconstitutional under state law. However, the US Supreme Court has since clarified that the US Constitution prohibits states and local governments from excluding religious institutions from public benefit programs solely based on their religious character. The federal district court rejected arguments from New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin, reaffirming the churches' eligibility for equal access to the grant program.

In addition to the Religious Liberty Clinic, the churches were represented by Jones Day, Roselli Griegel Lozier, PC, and First Liberty Institute. The legal team included First Liberty attorneys Jeremy Dys and Pepperdine alumnus Ryan Gardner (JD ’16), as well as Jones Day’s Noel Francisco, former Solicitor General of the United States, and attorneys Megan Owen, Ben Aguiñaga, and Christopher Pagliarella.

Pepperdine Caruso Law students played key roles in the case, including Tiereney Souza, Ellie Ritter, Jack Walecki, Meng Cai, Kaitlyn Hanes, Menachem Schochet, and Joel Alexander.

“The Darling Foundation Religious Liberty Clinic has, in a short time, provided so many of our students with the tools and opportunities to advocate on behalf of religious liberty,” said professor Michael Helfand, Brenden Mann Foundation Chair in Law and Religion and co-director of the Nootbaar Institute for Law, Religion and Ethics.

The decision in the case may be found at Mendham Methodist Church v. Morris County

Pictured left to right are Caruso Law student Mendel Schochet, Ryan Gardner (JD '16), Chris Pagliarella (Jones Day),  and Caruso Law student Joel Alexander.