By Fox23.com News Staff
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — Attorney General Gentner Drummond has asked the Trump Administration to halt the U.S. Department of Justice’s investigation into the City of Broken Arrow. Drummond called it “an example of federal overreach and an unwarranted intrusion into local government.”
It was reported that the DOJ informed the City of Broken Arrow that the investigation was regarding land use practices pursuant to the Religious Land Use and Institutionalize Persons Act of 2000. It stemmed from the City denying a rezoning application for a proposed mosque and commercial development. The investigation was opened on July 17 and is being investigated by the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.
“The investigation is federal overreach of the first order,” Drummond said in a statement. “Land-use decisions such as this belong to state and locally elected officials who are accountable to the people they serve, not unelected bureaucrats in Washington. Oklahoma cities should not be subjected to sweeping federal investigations based on a single zoning decision when the DOJ itself acknowledges it has made no determination that federal law was violated.”
In the letter, Drummond says the investigation exceeds the DOJ’s authority by asking for years of municipal records, including communications involving private citizens who took part in the zoning process. He says the demand threatens citizen’s First Amendment rights.
Aside from halting the investigation, Drummond is asking the DOJ to require senior-level approval for any further investigative steps, “withdraw demands targeting the speech and associational activities of private citizens” and to work with the Attorney General’s office before taking any further action against an Oklahoma municipality.
