SEATTLE (CN) — A Washington church urged the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday to revive its lawsuit against a city permit policy governing outdoor homeless shelters, arguing the requirement interferes with its religious mission.
Burien, a suburb south of Seattle, passed a law in 2023 that bans camping and sleeping on nonresidential public property. The Burien Free Methodist Church opened an outdoor shelter on its property within a week of the law taking effect, hosting around 100 people for the following three months.
However, the city demanded the church apply for a permit to operate the encampment — a requirement the church says is unconstitutional and an attempt to regulate its religious conduct…