Date: 09-17-2007

Case Style: St. John's United Church of Christ, et al. v. The City of Chicago, et al.

Case Number: 05-4418

Judge: Wood

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on appeal from the Northern District of Illinois (Cook County)

Plaintiff's Attorney: Unknown

Defendant's Attorney: Unknown

Description:

Mention Chicago to almost any person who has been on an airplane, and that person will immediately think of Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. It is one of the busiest airports in the world: in 2005, more than 76.5 million passengers passed through its facilities, along with 1.7 million tons of freight. See http://www.flychicago.com/events/KidsPage2006/OHareH istory.shtm (last visited August 27, 2007). It is also of central importance to the economy of Chicago and Northern Illinois, generating approximately 514,000 jobs for the region and nearly $37 billion a year in economic development. Id. Responding to growth in demand for O'Hare's services, the Illinois General Assembly passed the O'Hare Modernization Act (OMA), 620 ILCS 65/5, in 2003, in order to improve and expand the airport. This case deals with certain land acquisitions contemplated by that legislation.

We consolidated these appeals for decision because each raises challenges to the same district court order in lawsuits filed by objectors to the modernization project. In that order, the court denied a motion for leave to file a second amended complaint (for all but one count) and refused to enjoin the City of Chicago's plan to acquire each plaintiff's property in order to build additional runways at O'Hare. In appeal number 05-4418, the St. John's United Church of Christ and two of its parishioners (collectively, St. John's) challenge the district court's denial of their motions for leave to file a second amended complaint and for a preliminary injunction. St. John's claims that the City's attempt to condemn a cemetery located on church property violates the First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause, the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause, and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), 42 U.S.C. § 2000cc et seq. We consider only the claims St. John's has asserted against the City; its claims against the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) were resolved in the FAA's favor by the court of appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Village of Bensenville v. FAA, 457 F.3d 52 (D.C. Cir. 2006).1

In appeal number 05-4450, the Villages of Bensenville and Elk Grove (Municipal Plaintiffs) contend that the district court erred in concluding that it lacked jurisdiction to review their claims against the FAA. Lastly, in appeal number 05-4451, we consider the challenge of the Rest Haven Cemetery Association and two members of its board of directors (collectively, Rest Haven) to the district court's dismissal of the first amended complaint. Rest Haven was not named in the proposed second amended complaint because the City no longer plans to acquire its cemetery. The district court concluded, for that reason, that its claim was moot; Rest Haven disagrees with that assessment. In Rest Haven's appeal, we also consider the same question raised by the Municipal Plaintiffs, namely, whether the district court had jurisdiction to consider Rest Haven's claims against the FAA. We conclude that the district court navigated its way through these complex issues successfully, and we thus affirm its judgment in all respects.

I

In the summer of 2001, the U.S. Senate Commerce, Energy, and Transportation Committee held hearings in Chicago to discuss the ways in which delays at O'Hare contribute to excessive aviation delays throughout the United States. During the course of these hearings, the Committee strongly hinted that if the City of Chicago and the State of Illinois did not reach a decision on airport expansion before September 1, 2001, Congress would likely intervene.

On June 29, 2001, the City announced its plan to increase O'Hare's capacity; this plan later developed into the O'Hare Modernization Program (OMP). The OMP proposed to correct some of the inefficiencies created by the airfield's outdated configuration of seven intersecting three original intersecting runways that lie north of the present terminals) by creating six parallel and two crosswind runways. The proposed design resembles the more effective runway architecture that has been employed at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. In contrast to the current layout of intersecting runways, in which the ability to use one runway is limited by whether an aircraft is using any of the others, the proposed configuration would permit a constant stream of take-offs and landings on each parallel runway, regardless of the activity that may simultaneously be occurring on adjacent runways.

On December 5, 2001, the Mayor of Chicago and the Governor of Illinois announced that they had reached an agreement on the central components of the proposed OMP. Shortly thereafter, the FAA submitted its Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), which is a "detailed analysis . . . conducted to determine if, or the extent to which, a particular agency action will impact the environment." Heartwood, Inc. v. United States Forest Serv., 230 F.3d 947, 949 (7th Cir. 2000). All federal agencies are required to prepare an EIS for any "major Federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment." See the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), 42 U.S.C. § 4332(2)(C).

In June of 2002, the City announced its plan to acquire 433 acres of land located in the Villages of Elk Grove and Bensenville, two municipalities adjacent to O'Hare, in anticipation of the airport's expansion. A wide variety of properties were scheduled for condemnation, including a number of homes and businesses, a police and fire station, an elementary school, several parklands, and the two cemeteries at issue here - St. Johannes and Rest Haven, owned by the St. John's United Church of Christ and the Rest Haven Cemetery Association, respectively. The Municipal Plaintiffs responded by filing suit in state court seeking both a declaration that any effort to acquire the desired property without first obtaining a "certificate of approval" from the Illinois Department of Transportation was beyond the City's authority under the Illinois Aeronautics Act, see 620 ILCS 5/47, and a preliminary injunction preventing the City from proceeding with its land acquisition plan. On July 9, 2002, the Circuit Court of DuPage County granted the municipalities' requested relief; the Illinois Appellate Court affirmed its decision. See Philip v. Daley, 790 N.E.2d 961 (Ill. App. Ct. 2003).

Faced with this setback, the City turned to Springfield and the Illinois General Assembly for help. It was successful in persuading the legislature to enact the OMA in May of 2003. See 620 ILCS 65/5. The Act's statement of findings and purposes notes the importance of O'Hare to both the state and national air transportation system and affirms the necessity of acquiring adjacent properties as part of the modernization program. See OMA § 5(a)(1), (2), (5). In addition, the Act proclaims that "[i]t is the intent of the General Assembly that all agencies of this State and its subdivisions shall facilitate the efficient and expeditious completion of the O'Hare Modernization Program to the extent not specifically prohibited by law, and that legal impediments to the completion of the project be eliminated." OMA § 5(b).

The Act specifically addresses the issue of acquisition of property in several places. It does so generally in section 15, which grants to the City "[i]n addition to any other powers the City may have, and notwithstanding any other law to the contrary," the power to

acquire by gift, grant, lease, purchase, condemnation . . . or otherwise any right, title, or interest in any private property, property held in the name of or belonging to any public body or unit of government, or any property devoted to a public use, or any other rights or easements, including any property, rights, or easements owned by the State, units of local government, or school districts, including forest preserve districts, for purposes related to the O'Hare Modernization Program.

OMA § 15. Lest there be any doubt on the particular topic of cemeteries, the Act continues: "The powers given to the City under this Section include the power to acquire, by condemnation or otherwise, any property used for cemetery purposes within or outside of the City, and to require that the cemetery be removed to a different location." See also id. § 92 (amending the Illinois Municipal Code, 65 ILCS 5/11-51-1, to make it clear that the City of Chicago need not obtain the consent of a cemetery's owner in order to exercise its powers under § 15 of the OMA, even though such consent is normally required).

The OMA amends many statutes - indeed, as counsel for the City argued, it seems to have amended every statute that someone thought might stand in the way of the OMP. Thus, for example, it amends the Downstate Forest Preserve District Act, 70 ILCS 805/5e, OMA § 93; the Vital Records Act, 410 ILCS 535/21, OMA § 93.5; the Illinois Aeronautics Act, 620 ILCS 5/38.01, OMA § 94; and the Code of Civil Procedure, 735 ILCS 5/2-103, OMA § 95. Among these many modifications is the one that is central to this litigation: the addition of a new section 30 to the Illinois Religious Freedom Restoration Act (IRFRA), 775 ILCS 35/1 et seq. OMA § 96. The IRFRA provides generally that the "[g]overnment may not substantially burden a person's exercise of religion, even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability, unless it demonstrates that application of the burden to the person (i) is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest and (ii) is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest." 775 ILCS 35/15. That broad language was qualified by the new section 30, which states: "Nothing in this Act [i.e. IRFRA] limits the authority of the City of Chicago to exercise its powers under the [OMA] for the purpose of relocation of cemeteries or the graves located therein." 775 ILCS 35/30.

On May 30, 2003, shortly after the legislature enacted the OMA, the Municipal Plaintiffs, St. John's, and Rest Haven filed suit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against the City of Chicago, Mayor Richard M. Daley, the State of Illinois, Governor Rod Blagojevich, and both the FAA and its administrator alleging a number of violations of federal law. On June 19, 2003, Plaintiffs filed an amended complaint. Most of the counts of the amended complaint challenged the City's plan to acquire land before the FAA issued its EIS or Record of Decision (ROD). Additionally, all of the Plaintiffs alleged that the City, along with the Mayor, violated NEPA and its implementing regulations, the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), 16 U.S.C. § 470, et seq., § 4(f) of the Department of Transportation Act, 49 U.S.C. § 303(c), as well as provisions of the Administrative Procedures Act, 5 U.S.C. § 706.

In the amended complaint, St. John's and Rest Haven also asserted a number of claims based on religion against the City. They alleged that the City, in proposing to condemn their cemeteries without demonstrating a compelling governmental interest and use of the least restrictive mechanism, as IRFRA ordinarily requires, violated their constitutional rights under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. These plaintiffs charged that the City is "targeting" their religious activities and posing a substantial burden on their ability to practice their religion. Plaintiffs also alleged that the City's plan to condemn their cemeteries violated the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), 42 U.S.C. § 2000cc et seq. Additionally, they asserted violations of the Fifth Amendment's Takings Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process clause. Finally, these Plaintiffs raised similar religionbased claims against the State of Illinois and Governor Blagojevich, and against the FAA and its administrator, including an allegation that the FAA violated the federal RFRA. On March 29, 2005, the district court dismissed the State of Illinois and Governor Blagojevich from the case on Eleventh Amendment immunity grounds.

As this suit was pending before the district court, the parties entered into a court-approved order under which the City agreed that it would not acquire property in Bensenville and Elk Grove, including the St. John's and Rest Haven Cemeteries, until the FAA issued an EIS or a ROD. At the end of 2003, the City began to move forward with other components of its plan to expand O'Hare, seeking FAA approval for over $1.3 billion in federal funds for "Phase One" of the OMP. Specifically, the City requested about $300 million in airport improvement program discretionary funds, $63 million in entitlement funds, and over $1 billion in Passenger Facility Charge (PFC) funds. Phase One of the project was to include the demolition of the cemeteries, as well as other property in the villages. In late July of 2005, the FAA issued its final EIS, which compared the environmental impact of the City's proposal with other alternatives and concluded that the City's airport plan, with some minor revisions, was the preferred course. The EIS also reviewed the legal issues raised by St. John's and Rest Haven, ultimately concluding that if the City's plan was approved in the ROD, the St. Johannes Cemetery would be relocated, while the Rest Haven Cemetery would not.

On September 30, 2005, the FAA issued its ROD granting the City's request for approval of its airport layout plan. The ROD considered St. John's RFRA claims and concluded that although the acquisition and relocation of the St. Johannes cemetery was likely to burden the exercise of the parishioners' religion substantially, the City had a compelling interest in relocating the cemetery in order to make O'Hare more efficient. The same day that the FAA issued its ROD, the Municipal Plaintiffs and St. John's filed a petition for review of the EIS and ROD in the D.C. Circuit. Their petition alleged, among other things, that the FAA's approval of the airport layout plan violated a number of provisions of federal law, including the First and Fifth Amendments and RFRA. Along with their petition for review, the Plaintiffs filed an emergency motion for a stay pending appeal and a motion for an administrative stay, which the D.C. Circuit granted. Rest Haven was not a party to this litigation.

In light of the FAA's approval of the airport layout plan and the claims pending before the D.C. Circuit, the district court issued an order to show cause why certain parties and claims should not be dismissed. Given that the Rest Haven Cemetery had by then been excluded from the OMP and that the City was not challenging this step, the district court suggested that Rest Haven should voluntarily dismiss itself from the suit. The district court also ordered the Plaintiffs to show cause why Mayor Daley should not be dismissed from the suit, because suing him in his official capacity and suing the City of Chicago amounted to the same thing. The district court also questioned its jurisdiction to review claims asserted against the FAA involving the ROD.

Before the district court issued its show cause order, however, the FAA informed the D.C. Circuit that it planned to award the City the $363 million in discretionary funds it had requested to begin the implementation of the first phase of the OMP. It made this announcement despite the fact that it had not yet formally rendered a decision granting the City's request. The City argued that in the absence of the FAA's final order rendering a decision on funding, the court was without jurisdiction to consider Plaintiffs' NEPA and RFRA claims. On October 25, 2005, the D.C. Circuit denied St. John's and the Municipal Plaintiffs' emergency motion for a stay pending appeal, determining that they had not demonstrated either the irreparable injury or the likelihood of success on the merits required for the issuance of a stay pending review. At that point, the court did not address the jurisdictional question.

On October 26, 2005, St. John's and the Municipal Plaintiffs returned to the district court and filed a motion for leave to file a second amended complaint. Rest Haven was not listed as a party to the motion for leave to file the second amended complaint. The proposed second amended complaint included a claim that the FAA had violated the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. § 552, et seq., when it allegedly ignored the Plaintiffs' requests for documents relating to O'Hare's expansion. On October 31, 2005, St. John's filed a motion for a temporary restraining order and a motion for a preliminary injunction, seeking to halt all action on the City's part while all these challenges were pending. The district court entered a temporary restraining order as it reviewed these motions.

After filing these motions in district court, the Plaintiffs then filed a docketing statement of issues in the D.C. Circuit. In addition to the claims they raised against the FAA before the district court, Plaintiffs asked the D.C. Circuit to decide whether it was improper for the FAA to fail to rule on Chicago's funding applications, whether the FAA had issued an unlawful ROD, and whether their First Amendment and RFRA claims were entitled to de novo review of disputed factual questions in an Article III court.

At that juncture, the district court dismissed Rest Haven from the litigation. Because the City no longer planned to acquire the Rest Haven Cemetery, and because Rest Haven did not present any argument explaining why or how it might be affected by either the City's or the FAA's actions in their response to the order to show cause, the district court held that its claims were moot. The court also dismissed Mayor Daley from the litigation, concluding that the Plaintiffs had not responded to the issue it raised in the order to show cause (whether it was redundant to sue both the City and the Mayor in his official capacity). The Plaintiffs do not challenge the dismissal of Mayor Daley from this suit on appeal.

With respect to St. John's religious claims against the City, the district court concluded that the Plaintiffs failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted under the Free Exercise Clause or the Equal Protection Clause. It found that the OMA was constitutional on its face and that there was no indication that any of the City's proposed actions were motivated by St. John's religious affiliation. The district court also denied St. John's motion for leave to file a second amended complaint with respect to these claims, finding them to be similarly lacking. Additionally, the district court dismissed all counts of the complaint that pertained to RLUIPA, concluding that the City's plan to condemn the St. Johannes Cemetery was not a "land use" regulation as contemplated by that statute.

The district court also dismissed the bulk of St. John's and the Municipal Plaintiffs' claims against the FAA and its administrator. It concluded that it lacked jurisdiction to review challenges to the FAA's actions concerning the ROD because under 49 U.S.C. § 46110, those claims fell within the exclusive jurisdiction of the court of appeals. Indeed, as the court recognized, the D.C. Circuit was already considering these claims. After dismissing these claims, all that remained was St. John's and the Municipal Plaintiffs' FOIA claim, for which the district court granted the motion for leave to file a second amended complaint. Given the dismissal of virtually all of the Plaintiffs' claims against the City and the FAA, the district court vacated the temporary restraining order and denied the motion for a preliminary injunction as moot. Plaintiffs have appealed from that decision. See 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a)(1).

* * *

Outcome: Accordingly, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.

Plaintiff's Experts: Unknown

Defendant's Experts: Unknown

Comments: None