Basking Ridge's Mosque Settlement To Return To State Court

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — A federal court judge ruled that a citizen's complaint concerning how Bernards Township handled the settlement of the construction of a mosque can be returned to state court to be heard.

Basking Ridge resident Cody Smith filed the lawsuit on May 25 claiming the township violated the New Jersey Open Public Meetings Act when they voted to settle two lawsuits with the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge and U. S. Department of Justice.

The lawsuit by the ISBR was filed in March 2016 after the Bernards Township Planning Board voted down the application to build an Islamic mosque on Church Street.

Since the ISBR's suit, the United States Justice Department also filed a lawsuit in November 2016 against Bernards Township alleging discrimination after the township's Planning Board decision.

"Even though these settlement agreements were matters of extraordinary public interest because they required the payment of $3.25 million to a local mosque and its attorneys as well as the grant of a variance in the zoning ordinances to allow the mosque to be built, the public was not informed of the terms of the settlements nor allowed to comment on the vote until after it had been taken," the Thomas More Law Center stated in a release.

Smith's lawsuit alleges that the Township entered into the settlements with the mosque proponents without publicly disclosing their terms beforehand, as required by the OPMA.

"The complaint asks the Superior Court to declare the Township’s votes to be invalid and uphold the right of its residents to have transparency in their local government," TMLC stated in a release.

Bernards Township Spokesman Michael Turner did not comment to Patch regarding this judgement.

• See Related: Basking Ridge Settles Mosque Lawsuits Tuesday Night
• See Related: Basking Ridge Votes No To Islamic Mosque
• See Related: Islamic Society Files Suit Against Basking Ridge Over Denial of Mosque
• See Related: NJDOJ Files Lawsuit Against Bernards Twp. Over Islamic Mosque Denial

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