Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman announced April 28 that he is leading a 20-state coalition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to allow a local church to build a shrine on its property, a plan that neighbors of the church have sued to prevent.
Coleman’s filing comes after the lawsuit reached the state supreme court, which ruled in favor of the neighbors and blocked the shrine’s construction, according to a press release from the attorney general’s office.
“In this country, we cannot allow a heckler’s veto to trump religious liberty,” Coleman said in the release. ‘It’s not up to the courts to decide how we practice our faith. We’re asking the U.S. Supreme Court to provide nationwide clarity and stand with people of faith who simply want to worship without unlawful government interference.”
The shrine would be built on the property of Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Park Hills, a city in northern Kentucky just three miles from Cincinnati, Ohio. The Missionaries of Saint John the Baptist, Inc. owns the church property, according to the release.
The missionaries received zoning approval in 2021 from Park Hills to build the shrine, and neighbors who opposed the shrine sued in response.
In the brief filed at the Supreme Court, Coleman and the states petition the court to hear the case and affirm the protections of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), passed in 2000. The law intended to guarantee that governments “do not impose substantial burdens on religious organizations through zoning laws,” but the release argues that many courts “have misinterpreted the law,” thereby infringing on religious freedom.
In December 2025, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled 6-1 that the RLUIPA had not been violated and ended the missionaries’ permit, according to The Kentucky Lantern. Previous local reports said residents opposed to the shrine were worried about how it would affect local traffic.
The brief argues that through this case, the Supreme Court should provide clearer guidance on the application of RLUIPA. It also argues that many state and local governments “have little and conflicting guidance on how to bring community-focused zoning decisions in line with an important federal law protecting religious organizations.”
The parish is being represented in the lawsuit by First Liberty Institute, according to Local 12 News. Jeremy Dys, senior counsel for the legal group, told Local 12 News that the state Supreme Court’s decision jeopardizes the freedom of churches across the country.
“They put at risk every religious institution in the country that would be prevented now from anybody complaining about noise or traffic or some other pretextual reason to prevent them from using their property for religious reasons,” Dys said. “That can’t be the standard.”
The state attorneys general joining Coleman in the coalition are from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia.
The attorney general office’s release describes the intended shrine as “modest,” saying it would offer parishioners “a quiet place for meditation and worship before and after Mass.”
However, The Kentucky Lantern reports that Chief Justice Debra Lambert said the missionaries conceded that “in 2021 it ‘voluntarily’ submitted an application for a grotto that was smaller in size than it originally intended.”
According to Local 12 News, the proposed shrine would be a grotto “roughly the size of a backyard swimming pool on the hillside behind the church,” including a shrine to Our Lady, a plaza, a walking path, and a retaining wall.