Ronald L. Caravan

With the relatively recent rise of hostility among government and public-school officials toward religion (specifically Christianity), we occasionally hear of incidents of discrimination against religious expression or inappropriate enforcement of imagined prohibitions against religious practices. These incidents are often so outlandish that they make news simply because they strike most reasonable people as patently ridiculous.

Sometimes news about government vs. religion comes with lawsuits attached. Usually they are remote occurrences unfolding in some faraway place. Now, one has sprung up practically in our own back yard. The St. Lawrence County town of Morristown has allegedly been discriminating against its Amish population over the past two or three years, and now town officials have a serious lawsuit on their hands over the allegation.

The suit was filed in Watertown federal district court Jan. 6 by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is headquartered in Washington, D.C. The suit alleges that Morristown officials have singled out their Amish constituents through newly applied standards of building-code enforcement that contradict traditional Amish religious practices, and where there is no “compelling government interest” for doing so.

The Amish community in Morristown, which borders the St. Lawrence River southwest of Ogdensburg, is comprised of the Old Order Swartzentruber sect, a particularly conservative group that shuns modern technological conveniences, such as electricity in their homes and motorized vehicles for transportation. They are virtually self-sufficient and, typical of Amish populations elsewhere, are master craftsmen and builders.

The Amish settled in St. Lawrence County in the early 1970s, according to background information in the lawsuit. Over the years, they evidently experienced no difficulty obtaining building permits from the Town of Morristown, or negotiating acceptable compromises on occasions when regulations might be incompatible with their long-standing religious practices.

Everything changed in 2006. The difference? The appointment of Lanetta Kay Davis as town code-enforcement officer, the suit contends.

Ms. Davis, who was appointed to the Morristown position in 2006, had previously served as code-enforcement officer in the nearby Town of Hammond where she became the first town official to initiate code-enforcement proceedings against Amish landowners, according to the suit. Not long after her appointment in Morristown, she evidently proposed a new local law, which the town board passed, pertaining to building permits.

That local law established strict guidelines for any type of construction, change, improvement, or demolition of any structure in the town, including the requirement that certified architectural drawings accompany any building-permit application. The suit contends that the “Defendants (Davis and town board members) are aware that Plantiffs’ religious beliefs prevent them from submitting architect-stamped construction plans, but they have nevertheless imposed a requirement for such plans.”

An even simpler sticking point for the Morristown Amish is the code-office’s insistence that battery-powered smoke detectors be installed, as they allow no electricity in their homes. Other requirements, such as “hurricane tie-downs” and “frost-protected” foundations also run counter to traditional Amish building conventions, which are part of their religious practice.

Noting that their rules for construction are specified in the religious sect’s Ordnung (Order), the suit points out that “the Amish are known for their high standards in the construction of buildings and furniture; non-Amish frequently pay handsomely for Amish-built furniture and homes due to the old-world craftsmanship and careful attention to detail.”

Claiming that the establishment and uncompromising enforcement of the newly established building-code provisions “furthers no compelling governmental interest,” the lawsuit states, “On the contrary, the same, or virtually identical, Code provisions were not enforced against the Swartzentruber Amish for years, including in Morristown and in neighboring towns in St. Lawrence County.”

This gives rise to the question of why one or more Morristown officials would suddenly begin giving the Amish a hard time after more than three decades of peaceful co-existence. Becket Fund National Litigation Director Eric Rassbach contends that the town is “apparently bent on chasing the Amish out.”

The lawsuit claims there is evidence of hostility toward the Amish by at least one Morristown official. Code Enforcement Officer Davis, it claims, on more than one occasion posted internet messages on the web site AmishDeception.com, including one in which she allegedly stated, “A lot of people in this area have wondered out loud if a ‘reservation’ (like the Native American’s [sic] have) might be a good solution for the Amish. Personally, I do not think that would be appropriate. The Amish chose to move to the USA, where the Native Americans had no choice and lost their native land.”

Since Ms. Davis became code-enforcement officer, the suit notes, “every landowning Swartzentruber Amish resident of Morristown who has attempted to build or move a structure onto his property has received a citation.”

A significant factor, the suit points out, is that under N.Y. Executive Law Section 381(2), enforcement of the building code is optional for a town, which may instead leave enforcement up the county. Noting that St. Lawrence County has a history of working amicably with the Amish, the suit states, “Morristown officials, including Defendants, have freely chosen to take on the task of enforcing the Building Code” and have in essence gone out of their way to prosecute the Amish in town court.

The lawsuit against Ms. Davis and the other Morristown officials has been filed on behalf of eleven Amish families. It is now in the hands of Senior U.S. District Court Judge Thomas McAvoy and bears watching.