美國的宗教土地使用國會的立法與法院的判例

Religious Land Use in the United States: Legislations and Court Cases

在這裡，我們想要透過美國國會的立法、以及各級法院的判例，來了解政府對於宗教土地使用的作法；具體而言，我們想要知道，當地方政府的土地管制、甚至於徵收侵犯到人民的宗教自由之際，國會及法院採取怎麼樣的態度。我們先將了解土地對於宗教信仰的重要性、以及反對立法保障宗教土地使用的理由；接著，我們要回顧美國國會與聯邦最高法院針對這個議題的長期拔河；再來，我們要介紹RLUIPA的內容，特別是關鍵的概念；其次，我們將探討土地使用法規涉及是否包含土地徵收；在結語之前，我們要考察一些在RLUIPA立法以後的判例。

In this article, we explore how the American government has dealt with the issues of religious land use through Congressional legislations and judicial interpretations by court cases. Specifically, we look into how the legislative and the judicial branches have expressed themselves when religious lands are taken by the local government via eminent domain and whether the peoples’ freedom of religion of the people has been infringed. We shall start with an understanding of the importance of lands to freedom of religion and the rationales underlying the oppositions against any attempts at regulating religious land uses. After reviewing the tug-of-war between Congress and the Supreme Court on this issue over the years, we shall introduce the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) passed in 2000 with a special focus on some key concepts. In addition, we will examine whether eminent domain is under the jurisdiction of land use regulations. Before we come to the conclusions, we will also investigate some court cases after the promulgation of the RLUIPA.