14 DAY TRIAL // Nathan Myers bought a house in Chicago with the specific intent of renting it out to the Loyola University chapter of Sigma Pi. When he found out that required a special permit, he realized that the zoning ordinance did not, however, apply to monasteries or convents.
The man claimed his rights to equal protection were being violated as the house would become a monastery, and he even took the matter to court.
“Sigma Pi's occupancy would not make the property a frat house, but a monastery,” he argued, as stated in court records.
According to the Daily Mail, U.S. District Judge John Tharp Jr. ruled that asking for a permit was not in violation of Myers’ rights, as the members of the fraternity haven't proved to be “actual Religious Brothers.”
Myers came up with this quick fix after finding out that zoning laws prohibited fraternities in that area of Chicago. This zoning ordinance had outlawed frat houses in the neighborhood since the ‘70s. In order to rent his house to Sigma Pi, he would have to apply for a special-use permit.
His whole case was based on the fraternity's mission statement, “In the Service of God and Man.” The judge ruling in his case failed to see how the mission statement alone was proof the members of Sigma Pi were, in fact, part of a religious group.
“Religious Brothers” were defined by the court as “persons (such as nuns or monks) under religious vows,” which was definitely not the case here.
The judge dismissed Mr. Myers’ claim and argued that there was no discrimination involved in him being asked for a permit.
“He cannot show that the defendants acted irrationally in interpreting and enforcing the zoning ordinance in a way that differentiates between a college frat house and a monastery.”