FIRST ON FOX: The Supreme Court agreed Thursday to hear a Kentucky church’s fight to build a prayer grotto on its property, taking up a dispute over what constitutes a "substantial burden" on religious exercise under federal land-use law. Ryan Gardner, senior counsel at First Liberty Institute, which represents the Missionaries of St. John the Baptist, told Fox News Digital the implications stretch far beyond the proposed Catholic shrine in Park Hills, Kentucky.
"This is a massive case for religious liberty because it has the potential to impact every single zoning law in this country," Gardner told Fox News Digital. ORTHODOX JEW FIGHTS BACK, SAYS CALIFORNIA CITY FINED HIM FOR HOME PRAYER MEETINGS At the center of the case is a proposed 16-by-39-foot grotto that court records say would include a shrine to the Virgin Mary, a plaza, walking path and retaining wall. Gardner compared its roughly 600-square-foot footprint to the size of a swimming pool.
The church applied in March 2021 for a conditional-use permit and variance to build the grotto behind its building in honor of the Virgin Mary’s apparition to Saint Bernadette in Lourdes, France. The church building itself has stood on the property for nearly a century, which predates Park Hills’ zoning ordinance adopted in 1974. The property history is a bit more complicated than the case’s shorthand description may suggest.
The proposed grotto involved an adjacent parcel that was initially subject to a perpetual lease that would be transferred to the religious organization as a condition of the project’s approval. But unlike many religious land-use disputes, Gardner said, the church’s initial fight in this case was not with the local government. The Park Hills Board of Adjustment approved the church’s permit in April 2021.
Two neighboring property owners, however, Joel and Elizabeth Frederic, objected and challenged the board’s decision in Kentucky state court. AMISH FACE NEW YORK VACCINE MANDATE IN SUPREME COURT FIGHT, MIGHT HAVE TO ‘PACK THEIR WAGONS’ A trial court ruled in the church’s favor, but the Kentucky Court of Appeals reversed, concluding the board exceeded its authority in approving the project and finding no violation of federal religious land-use law. The Kentucky Supreme Court affirmed the RLUIPA ruling in December 2025, prompting the church to seek Supreme Court review.
The case centers on the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, known as RLUIPA, a federal law enacted to protect religious institutions from certain burdens on the use of their property. "RLUIPA is at the intersection of two very critical rights in this country: the rights of religious liberty and property rights," Gardner told Fox News Digital. The church asked the justices to review two questions under RLUIPA, but the Supreme Court agreed to hear only one: whether prohibiting a religious institution from building a religious structure on its own property constitutes a "substantial burden" on religious exercise under the law.
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