Members of Minnesota’s very conservative Amish community don’t need to install a cleanup system to treat “gray water,” state appeals court Monday says long-term religious freedom extended to U.S. judgment in the lawsuit. supreme court.
A panel of three judges said the government would challenge state regulations governing the treatment of gray water—the water used to wash dishes and laundry—and nullify Amish families’ religious freedom. The court ruled that it “failed to prove compelling national interests.” Bathing is allowed, but excrement in the toilet is not covered.
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The Swartzentruber Amish, who live in southeastern Minnesota, are one of the most traditional Amish groups in the country, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch said in a 2021 ruling. The court remanded the case to a Minnesota court for reconsideration, following the High Court’s ruling in another religious freedom case a month ago. The ruling upheld a Philadelphia-based Catholic orphanage that said its religious views prevented it from supporting same-sex couples.
A Swartzentruber Amish buggy on a winter road in West Salem, Ohio, Friday, April 21, 2017. Members of the Amish group Swartzentruber won a legal victory Monday against state regulations requiring the installation of septic tanks that violate religious beliefs. (Phil Masturzo/Akron Beacon Journal, via AP)
A Minnesota District Court concluded last September that the government had demonstrated a “supreme” compelling national interest in requiring the Swartzentruber Amish to use septic tanks to protect the area’s groundwater supply. rice field. The family has since appealed again. The Court of Appeal on Monday remanded the case to a lower court to order in their favor and in favor of the Amish.
In 2013, Fillmore County began requiring homes to have a state-of-the-art purification system to treat gray water. The Swartzentruber Amish asked for exemption, saying their religion prohibited the technology. They filed a lawsuit in 2017. For years they were discharging gray water directly onto the ground. They suggested instead using mulch-basins filled with wood chips to filter water, as allowed in some other states, but the government argued that mulch-basins were ineffective. bottom.
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The federal religious liberty law at issue in Philadelphia “prohibits governments from violating faithfully held religious beliefs and practices except as a last resort,” Gorsuch explained at the time. , urged Minnesota courts and local authorities to resolve the dispute expeditiously.
“Neither the Amish nor anyone else in this country should have to choose between farming and faith,” Gorsuch said.
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The Court of Appeals noted that while the Swartzentruber Amish use some technology, they do not own or drive a car, nor do they use phones, lights, or modern flush toilets. They supply the house with water from a reservoir and always prohibit the purification system.
