Editorial: For Trump's Justice Department, Idaho church good, Texas mosque bad

The Editorial Board, The Idaho Statesman on May 30, 2025

Published in Op Eds

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The Department of Justice under the Trump administration is going after a tiny Idaho town you’ve probably never heard of.

The Justice Department filed a religious liberty lawsuit against the town of Troy in Latah County, just outside Moscow, saying that the denial of a permit for Christ Church’s proposed move was unlawful, according to previous Idaho Statesman reporting.

It’s a dispute over zoning ordinances in a tiny town of about 900 people.

Just on its face, the city’s decision appears to be based on zoning concerns, such as parking and traffic, inhibiting commercial growth and concerns that the church would be too close to an establishment with a liquor license, a violation of state law.

Religion was never cited as a reason for denying the church’s application.

But the Justice Department cited the Religious Land Use and Incarcerated Persons Act, or RLUIPA, which protects individuals, houses of worship and other religious institutions from discrimination in zoning and landmarking laws.

A letter from the city attorney pointed out that there are at least five religious denominations that hold services in the city, according to the Moscow Pullman Daily News. None of the churches is located in the central business zone, which is approximately two blocks on Main Street. The central business district is intended to “preserve and enhance” the downtown business sector, according to the city attorney.

That district was where Christ Church wanted to move.

Doesn’t the Justice Department have anything better to do than to meddle in a local land use decision?

Justice drops police lawsuits

The Justice Department must have needed to free up space on its calendar to take on Troy, because at the same time, it announced that it was dropping lawsuits against the Louisville, Kentucky, and Minneapolis police departments over racial discrimination in those cities.

Ironically, the reason given for dropping those suits: local control.

“Overbroad police consent decrees divest local control of policing from communities where it belongs, turning that power over to unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats,” according to Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

But overbroad land use planning decrees are OK in tiny Troy, Idaho, apparently.

Christ Church connections

Why would the Justice Department be in such a rush to help Christ Church in Idaho?

Could it be because Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ties?

According to Heath Druzin, an Idaho-based reporter and the host of the podcast “Extremely American,” Hegseth has close links to Christ Church, a Christian nationalist church based in Moscow that aims to turn America into a theocracy.

Hegseth is a member of a Tennessee congregation affiliated with Christ Church, led by Doug Wilson, who advocates for taking away the right to vote from most women, barring non-Christians from holding office and criminalizing the LGBTQ+ community, according to Druzin.

Hegseth has spoken positively of Wilson’s writings.

It seems that it helps to know unqualified people in high places.

Why else would the Justice Department intervene in such a small case of questionable merit?

It raises the question: What would the Justice Department do if it were a mosque being proposed instead?

Justice Department goes after Texas mosque

To find the answer to that question, all we need to do is look at the city of Josephine, Texas, where the Justice Department is investigating the construction of a development that includes a mosque.

The investigation targets EPIC City, a 402-acre project backed by the East Plano Islamic Center in Josephine, about 40 miles northeast of Dallas, according to the Christian Post.

The planned development — which includes over 1,000 homes, a mosque, a K-12 faith-based school, clinics, retail shops, a community college and sports facilities — has sparked controversy among Texas Republican leaders, including Gov. Greg Abbott.

Just replace the word “mosque” with “Christian church” and you’d likely get your answer to how Trump’s Justice Department and Texas’ government officials would treat the proposal.

It’s worth pointing out that Christ Church’s Association of Classical Christian Schools has hundreds of Christian fundamentalist schools around the country.

And the Idaho Legislature, with the signature of Gov. Brad Little, agreed to hand over millions of dollars of taxpayer money to private religious schools.

One can only imagine the apoplectic reaction of Little and those Republican legislators if Idaho’s Muslim community were to build a “faith-based” school.

It was only a few years ago that the Idaho Legislature rejected an international child-support bill over fears that it would lead to Sharia law in Idaho.

When Trump’s Justice Department rushes to undermine the local control of a tiny Idaho town in defense of a far-right Christian church, but then investigates a proposed mosque in Texas, one can’t help but notice the disparity.

And the hypocrisy.

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