October 3, 2007 -- While the Masons may have received a victory as a religious group, the court ultimately ruled that the RLUIPA law did not apply in the specific case at hand.
The appeals court ruled that since the cathedral was used for "a melange of cultural and commercial events with a declining nexus to Masonic principles or other religious exercise," the Scottish Rite organizations could not claim protection under RLUIPA's "religious exercise" clause. Click here: Religion News: Court Says Freemasons Fall Under Religious Protection Law <http://pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsID=14306> ===================================================================== October 11, 2007 -- A court in Los Angeles has ruled that Freemasonry is a form of "religious exercise," comparable to Christianity and Islam. "We see no principled way to distinguish the earnest pursuit of these (Masonic) principles ... from more widely acknowledged modes of religious exercise," said the ruling. The groups had leased out the cathedral for events such as dances, in apparent violation of zoning rules that restrict it to Masonic events only. The Masons had sought relief under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons (RLUIPA) act. But even though the court ruled the Masons are a religious group, it said RLUIPA didn't apply to them, so it was a Pyrrhic victory. Click here: The Ledger <http://blogs.theledger.com/default.asp?item=686680>
