October 14, 2022

County of San Bernardino v. Mancini

The San Bernardino County Code prohibits commercial cannabis activity on unincorporated county land. A local church, the Jah Healing Kemetic Temple, dispensed cannabis as a sacrament to its members. An investigation found cash registers, pricing information, and a sales room onsite, and the county filed suit against the church and its owner for operating an illegal cannabis dispensary. The trial court entered a permanent injunction enjoining the church from engaging in “commercial cannabis activity.” Defendants appealed.

The Court of Appeal affirmed. The court disagreed with defendants’ free exercise claims under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 and the California Constitution. The court held that defendants did not show the county enforced its facially neutral ordinance for discriminatory reasons or that the ordinance imposed a substantial burden on free exercise of religion. The court held further that enforcement of the ordinance at issue did not prevent the church from using or possessing cannabis, the church’s “only religious exercise at issue.” While the injunction precluded the church from dispensing cannabis for personal, non-immediate use outside of religious rituals or ceremonies, the court construed the injunction to allow the church to dispense free cannabis to adherents for “immediate use as part of a bona fide religious ritual or ceremony."