Edgewood High School has filed a federal religious discrimination lawsuit against Madison for not allowing it to hold sporting events at its athletic field.
A lawyer for Edgewood High School warned Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway in an Aug. 19 email that Edgewood intended to file suit against the city for violating its religious rights. In the same email, Nathan J. Wautier, an attorney for Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren, extended a strange invite to the party that he intended to sue.
“If the mayor’s office would like to coordinate messaging with Edgewood, we would be happy to discuss that with her representatives,” Wautier wrote to Mary Bottari, chief of staff to Rhodes-Conway.
Wautier acknowledged that Edgewood was “sensitive to the public perception of filing a lawsuit against the city for religious discrimination, especially after the city attorney and the mayor sponsored an ordinance calling for the withdrawal of Edgewood’s Campus Master Plan.” Edgewood wants out of its master plan in order to hold competitions, with lights and amplification, on its athletic field, something that is strongly opposed by residents in the surrounding neighborhood.
Wautier also wrote that Edgewood did not intend to “publicize its lawsuit.” But, he added, “if the press learns about it and seeks comments from Edgewood, Edgewood will make it clear that it filed the lawsuit at this time solely to preserve its legal rights, that it has worked cooperatively with the mayor and city attorney to advance the withdrawal ordinance, and that it urges the Common Council to pass the withdrawal ordinance in such a way that hopefully renders the lawsuit unnecessary.”
Wautier is out of town but Matt Lee, another lawyer for Edgewood, responded to questions about Edgewood’s offer to coordinate messaging. “Edgewood intended to tailor its public messaging to emphasize that its preferred solution was passage of the master plan withdrawal ordinance which would hopefully make the litigation unnecessary, and invited the mayor’s office to collaborate on that messaging because we thought the mayor shared that goal,” Lee wrote in an email.
The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
City Attorney Michael May responded to Wautier by email on Aug. 20. May challenged Edgewood’s claim that it needs to pursue a federal lawsuit under the Religious Land Use & Institutionalized Persons Act (or RLUIPA) at this time. May suggested that the school could instead seek remedy in Dane County Circuit Court by appealing the city Zoning Board of Appeals’ July 11 ruling that Edgewood could not hold competitions on its athletic field.
“In our discussions, Edgewood gave only two reasons for pursuing a federal RLUIPA lawsuit combined with a ZBA [Zoning Board of Appeals] appeal at this time,” May wrote. “The one we think most accurate is the tactical decision that ‘Edgewood will not allow a Dane County Circuit Court to decide the case.’ The other was a vague statement that ‘We looked at this from every side and we can’t go to court.’ We think you can.”
Edgewood attorney Lee says that neither of May’s recalled quotes are “accurate.”
“The city repeatedly asked Edgewood to file the ZBA appeal in state court, knowing full well that filing in state court would potentially prejudice Edgewood’s federal claims in the event the master plan withdrawal ordinance failed. Edgewood was not willing to do that.”
A few years ago, when the city was revamping its zoning code, it created campus-institutional districts for schools. Certain uses are permitted within these districts and others require further zoning approval. Schools also had the option to create a master plan, which is what Edgewood decided to do. After several years of negotiating details with neighbors, Edgewood submitted its master plan to the city council, which approved it in 2014.
The city believes the master plan allows only team practices and physical education classes on Edgewood’s athletic field. But Edgewood disagrees. The school was cited by the city this spring for holding games on its field. The city Zoning Board of Appeals later affirmed the city’s zoning administrator’s conclusion that the school is prohibited from hosting these competitions.
On Aug. 6, Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, at the request of Edgewood, introduced a resolution to the city council to repeal Edgewood’s master plan. A few days later Ald. Tag Evers, who represents the area, introduced an ordinance that would require schools that don’t have master plans to get conditional use approval from the city in order to build “open or enclosed stadiums, auditoriums, arenas [and] indoor or outdoor sports recreational facilities.” Conditional use approval would also be needed for the installation of “stadium lighting [and] amplified sound,” and the establishment or expansion of outdoor seating “over a specified capacity.”
Evers has since revised his original proposal.
In an Aug. 21 statement, Rhodes-Conway said that because Edgewood filed suit against the city alleging religious discrimination, she would no longer sponsor an ordinance repealing the school’s master plan.
“The city of Madison does not discriminate against any religion. Edgewood High School is free to pursue the repeal of its master plan utilizing normal city processes,” she wrote. “I encourage Edgewood High School to work with its neighbors to resolve ongoing tensions over the proposal to have a limited number of night games.”
Edgewood, in a statement, said that it filed suit “in order to preserve its ability to challenge the Zoning Board of Appeals decision in the event that the ordinance terminating Edgewood’s master plan does not pass the Common Council next month. Edgewood told the mayor and the City Attorney’s Office weeks ago that it would need to file the lawsuit before the ordinance came up for a vote and is very disappointed to learn that the mayor has now pulled her support for the ordinance that she and the city attorney recommended to Edgewood in the first place. It is our hope that the Council will still pass the ordinance but we are reviewing all of our options for ensuring that our students are treated equally with students at the city’s public schools.”
