Amish paradise? The traditionalist Christian group’s population has been growing in Minnesota. A lot.
July 23, 2021
Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court sent a case concerning a group of Minnesota Amish back to the state’s Court of Appeals. The group, known as the Swartzentruber Amish, sued southeast Minnesota’s Fillmore County over its requirement that most homes have modern septic systems to deal with greywater, which is water used for things like baths, dishes and other cleaning.
Brian Lipford, the attorney representing the Swartzentruber Amish in the case, says the group believes that the septic requirement violates their religious freedom.
The Supreme Court’s ruling came in the wake of another religious freedom case — that one about a Philadelphia-based Catholic foster care agency — with both cases hinging on the application of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), which protects the religious use of land.