Warner v. City of Boca Raton

• Citation: 887 So.2d 1023
• Decision Date: 02 September 2004
• Docket Number: No. SC01-2206.,SC01-2206.
• Parties: Richard WARNER, et al., Appellants, v. CITY OF BOCA RATON, Florida, Appellee.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

887 So.2d 1023

Richard WARNER, et al., Appellants, v. CITY OF BOCA RATON, Florida, Appellee.

No. SC01-2206.

Supreme Court of Florida.

September 2, 2004.

Rehearing Denied November 16, 2004.

James K. Green and Lynn G. Waxman, West Palm Beach, FL; Charlotte H. Danciu, Boca Raton, FL; and Douglas Laycock, Austin, TX on behalf of American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Florida, Inc. for Appellant.

Bruce Rogow and Beverly A. Pohl of Bruce S. Rogow, P.A., Fort Lauderdale, FL, for Appellee.

Charles T. Canady, General Counsel, Executive Office of the Governor, Tallahassee, FL, on behalf of Honorable Jeb Bush, Governor of Florida, Amicus Curiae; Mathew D. Staver, Erik W. Stanley and Joel L. Oster, Longwood, FL on behalf of Liberty Counsel, Amicus Curiae.

Rebecca A. O'Hara, Tallahassee, FL on behalf of Florida League of Cities, Inc., Amicus Curiae; and Douglas L. Stowell, Tallahassee, FL on behalf of the International Cemetery and Funeral Association, Amicus Curiae.

QUINCE, J.

We have for review the following two questions concerning Florida law certified by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to be determinative of a cause pending in that court and for which there appears to be no controlling precedent:

Does the Florida Religious Freedom Restoration Act Broaden, and to what extent does it broaden, the definition of what constitutes religiously motivated conduct protected by law beyond the conduct considered protected by the decisions of the United States Supreme Court?

If the act does broaden the parameters of protected religiously motivated conduct, will a city's neutral, generally-applicable ordinance be subjected to strict scrutiny by the courts when the ordinance prevents persons from acting in conformity with their sincerely held religious beliefs, but the acts the persons wish to take are not 1) asserted or implied in relatively unambiguous terms by an authoritative sacred text, or 2) clearly and consistently affirmed in classic formulations of doctrine and practice, or 3) observed continuously, or nearly so, throughout the history of the religion, or 4) consistently observed in the tradition in recent times?

Warner v. City of Boca Raton, 267 F.3d 1223, 1227 (11th Cir.2001). We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(6), Fla. Const. We rephrase¹ the second question as follows:

Whether the City of Boca Raton Ordinance at issue in this case violates the Florida Religious Freedom Restoration Act (FRFRA)?

For the reasons stated below, we answer the first certified question in the affirmative and the second question, as rephrased by this Court, in the negative.

MATERIAL FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

The City of Boca Raton (the City) owns, operates, and maintains a 21.5 acre cemetery for its residents. In November 1982, the City passed a regulation prohibiting vertical grave markers, memorials, monuments, and structures on cemetery plots. The regulation allows individuals to place stone or bronze markers on plots provided that they are level with the ground surface. Richard Warner is a member of a class of city residents (appellants) who purchased burial plots in the City's cemetery. Despite the prohibition, between 1984 and 1996 appellants decorated family graves with vertical grave decorations.

In 1991, the City sent notices to plot owners who had placed vertical grave decorations at their plots, informing them that if they did not remove the noncomplying structures within thirty days, the structures would be removed. A small group of plot owners failed to comply with the City's request to remove the vertical grave decorations. A second notice was sent in 1992, requesting compliance, and again not all plot owners complied with the City's request. However, in response to objections from plot owners, the City agreed to postpone removal of the noncomplying structures pending further study. In 1996, the City amended the regulation to permit some vertical grave decorations up to sixty days from the date of burial and on certain holidays.

During this time, the City commissioned a survey of plot owners to identify their desires concerning vertical grave decorations in the cemetery. The study, conducted by researchers at Florida Atlantic University in 1997, concluded that most plot owners approved of the City's amended regulation. Subsequently, on June 10, 1997, at the regular meeting of the City Council, the City announced that it would begin enforcing the regulations as amended in 1996. All plot owners were notified that if they did not comply with the regulations by January 15, 1998, the City would remove all the noncomplying structures.

Thereafter, appellants filed suit alleging that the prohibition on vertical grave decorations violated their state and federal rights to freedom of expression, freedom of speech, and due process of law. Specifically, appellants argued that the City's prohibition violates the Florida Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1998 (FRFRA). Ch. 98-412, §§ 1-6, 3297-98, Laws of Fla. (codified as §§ 761.01-.05, Fla. Stat. (2003)). After a bench trial, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida held that the right to place vertical grave structures was not protected under the FRFRA. See Warner v. City of Boca Raton, 64 F.Supp.2d 1272 (S.D.Fla.1999)

.

The Southern District rejected appellants' argument that the City's regulation violated their right to the free exercise of religion because the FRFRA protected any act substantially motivated by a sincerely held religious belief. Instead, the Southern District concluded that the FRFRA was "intended to protect conduct that, while not necessarily compulsory or central to a larger system of religious beliefs, nevertheless reflects some tenet, practice or custom of a religious tradition." Id. at 1282.

After determining the scope of the FRFRA, the Southern District determined whether the placement of vertical decorations on grave sites reflected a tenet, custom or practice of appellants' religious traditions or merely represented a personal preference regarding religious exercise. The Southern District adopted the framework used by Dr. Daniel Pals² to determine the place appellants' practices hold within a religious tradition. The court said:

Under Dr. Pals' framework, a court should consider four criteria in order to determine the place of a particular practice within a religious tradition. In particular, a court should consider whether the practice: 1) is asserted or implied in relatively unambiguous terms by an authoritative sacred text; 2) is clearly and consistently affirmed in classic formulations of doctrine and practice; 3) has been observed continuously, or nearly so, throughout the history of the tradition; and 4) is consistently observed in the tradition as we meet it in recent times. If a practice meets all four of these criteria, it can be considered central to the religious tradition. If the practice meets one or more of these criteria, it can be considered a tenet, custom or practice of the religious tradition. If the practice meets none of these criteria, it can be considered a matter of purely personal preference regarding religious exercise.

Id. at 1285.

Using this test, the Southern District found that marking graves with religious symbols constituted a practice of appellants' religious traditions. However, it found that the particular manner in which such markers and religious symbols are displayed — vertically or horizontally — amounted to a matter of purely personal preference. The Southern District also found that the City's prohibition on vertical grave structures did not substantially burden appellants' practice of religion. The court reasoned that the City's regulation did not prohibit appellants from decorating the graves with religious symbols. The Southern District pointed out that the regulations permitted horizontal grave markers which "may be engraved with any type of religious symbol. Moreover, out of consideration for mourners vertical grave decorations are permitted for sixty days after the date of burial and for a few days around certain holidays." Id. at 1287. Accordingly, the court found that the City's regulation did not violate appellants' rights under the FRFRA. Appellants appealed the Southern District's decision to the Eleventh Circuit, which certified the aforementioned questions. See Warner, 267 F.3d at 1227

.

LAW AND ANALYSIS

I. Certified Question I

The Eleventh Circuit has certified two questions to this Court. The first question reads:

Does the Florida Religious Freedom Restoration Act broaden, and to what extent does it broaden, the definition of what constitutes religiously motivated conduct protected by law beyond the conduct considered protected by the decisions of the United States Supreme Court?

Warner, 267 F.3d at 1227. Before we define the parameters of our state law, we will first examine the applicable federal law.

Federal Law

Over the past hundred plus years, the United States Supreme Court has vacillated on the standard applicable to laws which in some way infringe on an individual's right to the free exercise of religion. Initially, the Supreme Court held that the Free Exercise Clause did not excuse an individual from the obligation to comply with neutral laws of general applicability. See, e.g., Minersville Sch. Dist. v. Gobitis, 310 U.S. 586, 594, 60 S.Ct. 1010, 84 L.Ed. 1375 (1940),

overruled by West Va. State Bd. of Educ. v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624, 63 S.Ct. 1178, 87 L.Ed. 1628 (1943); Reynolds v. United States, 98 U.S. 145, 166-67, 25 L.Ed. 244 (1878). Thus, it appeared that if a neutral law of general applicability was rationally related to a matter of governmental interest, it would not violate the Free Exercise Clause.

However, in 1963 the Supreme Court expanded the protection given to religious freedom. In Sherbert v. Verner, 374 U.S. 398, 406, 83 S.Ct. 1790, 10 L.Ed.2d 965 (1963), the Supreme Court expressly...