SC01-2206 - Richard Warner, et Al. v. City of Boca Raton, Florida

State: Florida

Docket No: SC01-2206

Case Date: 09/02/2004

Preview:Supreme Court of Florida
____________ No. SC01-2206 ____________

RICHARD WARNER, et al., Appellants, vs. CITY OF BOCA RATON, FLORIDA, Appellee. [September 2, 2004] QUINCE, J. We have for review the following two questions concerning Florida law certified by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to be determinative of a cause pending in that court and for which there appears to be no controlling precedent: Does the Florida Religious Freedom Restoration Act Broaden, and to what extent does it broaden, the definition of what constitutes religiously motivated conduct protected by law beyond the conduct considered protected by the decisions of the United States Supreme Court?

If the act does broaden the parameters of protected religiously motivated conduct, will a city's neutral, generally-applicable ordinance be subjected to strict scrutiny by the courts when the ordinance prevents persons from acting in conformity with their sincerely held religious beliefs, but the acts the persons wish to take are not 1) asserted or implied in relatively unambiguous terms by an authoritative sacred text, or 2) clearly and consistently affirmed in classic formulations of doctrine and practice, or 3) observed continuously, or nearly so, throughout the history of the religion, or 4) consistently observed in the tradition in recent times? Warner v. City of Boca Raton, 267 F.3d 1223, 1227 (11th Cir. 2001). We have jurisdiction. See art. V,

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