November 2, 2026
RICHMOND, Va. — A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments Tuesday, Oct. 27, in Chatham County’s appeal of a federal court order that bars it from denying The Summit Church’s request to rezone land for a new church campus.
The hearing was before Judge A. Marvin Quattlebaum Jr., Senior Judge Barbara Milano Keenan and U.S. District Judge Deborah L. Boardman of the District of Maryland.
The panel took the appeal under advisement and did not say when it would rule.
The county’s appeal in the case is narrow. It concerns only the preliminary injunction that a federal district court judge issued in June 2025, which bars the county from denying The Summit’s rezoning request while the lawsuit continues. The underlying lawsuit, including The Summit’s claims of religious discrimination under provisions of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), remains pending.
Steven Bader, the attorney who argued for Chatham County, said the injunction intrudes on the commissioners’ authority by going beyond what a federal court may order a local government to do. Under North Carolina law, he said, conditional rezoning is a legislative act. Bader argued that barring the county from denying the request effectively means it must approve it.
Bader said the county does not dispute that RLUIPA covers its zoning decision or that a court can strike down a decision that violates the law. But he argued a court cannot dictate the outcome when a board reconsiders, and he said the appeal centers on that remedy, not on the discrimination allegations.
“This is not a case about religious discrimination as my colleagues would have it,” Bader said. “It’s a case about separation of powers.”
Elbert Lin, the attorney who argued for The Summit, said the injunction does not require the county to approve the rezoning. The district court declined to order the county to approve The Summit’s rezoning request, he said, and simply put the application on hold while the case continues. Lin also said federal law, not state labels, decides what counts as zoning under RLUIPA.
“There is nothing requiring (the county) to legislatively rezone right now,” Lin said. He added that if The Summit prevails, the district court has “a number of options available” for relief that would not require the county to change the zoning classification.
Noah Sacks, a Justice Department attorney whose agency has supported the church in the case, said the department has “a strong interest in ensuring that RLUIPA provides broad protection for religious land use across the country.”
Sacks said that interest is threatened by Chatham County’s argument, which he said would let a local government use state law to shield its decision from RLUIPA. He also told the panel that the question before the court is limited to the preliminary injunction because the district court did not order a rezoning. When asked whether a court-ordered rezoning would be lawful, Sacks said the department had no position because that question had not been reached.
The judges asked whether treating rezoning as a legislative act would let local governments avoid RLUIPA. Bader said the county is not relying on a label and that rezoning is legislative in substance because an elected board weighs a range of policy considerations rather than applying fixed criteria.
The judges also asked both sides about the scope of the district court’s injunction, whether the constitutional limits on federal power over local governments apply to a federal court, and what relief might be appropriate if the church prevails at trial.
The oral arguments are the latest development in a dispute that began with The Summit Church’s rezoning request in 2024.
The Summit Church, a multisite congregation with 13 campuses across the Triangle region of North Carolina, has held services for its Chapel Hill campus at an area high school since 2013. Looking for a place to build a permanent home for that campus, the church acquired an option in December 2023 to buy six parcels of land totaling about 97 acres in northeast Chatham County.
In May 2024, The Summit asked the county to rezone three of them, about 50 acres, for a church campus. The commissioners unanimously denied the request in December 2024. The Summit says the denial reflected religious bias, a claim the county rejects. The county says the request was inconsistent with its land-use plan.
The Summit filed a lawsuit against Chatham County in February 2025 in the U.S. Middle District of North Carolina. After the county moved to dismiss the case and the Justice Department filed a statement of interest supporting the church, a district court judge denied the motion to dismiss and granted, in part, The Summit’s request for a preliminary injunction.
The district judge found The Summit likely to succeed on its claim that the denial substantially burdened its religious exercise. The judge barred the county from denying the rezoning request but declined to order it to approve the request. The county appealed in July 2025.
First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit religious liberty law firm, is among the attorneys representing The Summit on appeal.
An audio recording of the oral arguments can be accessed on the appeals court’s website.
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This article appeared in the Biblical Recorder.
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