St. John's United Church of Christ v. Chicago

Decision Date13 September 2007
Docket NumberNo. 05-4451.,No. 05-4450.,No. 05-4418.,05-4418.,05-4450.,05-4451.
PartiesST. JOHN'S UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST, Helen Runge, and Shirley Steele, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. The CITY OF CHICAGO, the Federal Aviation Administration, and Marion C. Blakely, Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, Defendants-Appellees. Village of Bensenville, Village of Elk Grove, Roxanne Mitchell, Rest Haven Cemetery Association, Robert Placek, and Leroy H. Heinrich, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. The City of Chicago, the Federal Aviation Administration, and Marion C. Blakely, Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, Defendants-Appellees.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Emily Nicklin, Kirkland & Ellis, Chicago, IL, for Defendant, Richard M. Daley.

Todd S. Aaraard (argued), Department of Justice Environment & Natural Resources Division, Patrick W. Johnson, Office of the United States Attorney, Chicago, IL, Charles Prock, Federal Aviation Administration, Des Plaines, IL, for Defendant-Appellee, Federal Aviation Administration.

Deborah L. Ahlstrand, Office of the Attorney General Civil Appeals Division, Chicago, IL, for Defendant, State of Illinois.

Before BAUER, RIPPLE, and WOOD, Circuit Judges.

WOOD, Circuit Judge.

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/OHareHistory. 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 runways (which include a "runway triangle" created by the 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, 339 Ill. App.3d 274, 274 Ill.Dec. 188, 790 N.E.2d 961 (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...

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