A private, religious college in Moscow linked to prominent Christian nationalists is suing the city over religious discrimination.
New Saint Andrews College, which Christ Church pastor Doug Wilson founded in the ‘90s, said in a federal lawsuit filed this month that the city of Moscow has selectively enforced zoning regulations against it for years because of its faith.
New Saint Andrews said city leaders violated its rights by refusing to let the college move its administrative operations to a new downtown building it leased.
NSA currently occupies a prominent brick building next to Friendship Square. It also has a second location a few blocks to the north, which the school acquired in 2017 at the site of a former nightclub.
After NSA expanded to its second location, Moscow city council members in 2019 passed an ordinance banning all new college and university operations in the central business district while grandfathering in NSA’s two locations.
In the lawsuit, the college claims a top city official said such a move would be OK, but its application was eventually denied three times.
Instead, the suit said the city required NSA to contract with a third-party that also serves at least one other client to occupy the space.
NSA says similar limitations and parking requirements haven’t been imposed on the secular University of Idaho, which runs two offices in the central business district.
The college said it believes these additional burdens are directly related to its conservative and fundamentalist faith.
It mentions then-City Councilwoman Julie Parker speaking at an event hosted by a local podcast, which shares stories of alleged abuse that occurred within the Christ Church system.
“Councilwoman Parker spoke publicly at the event, asking the podcasters how Moscow could be ‘a good, welcoming, kind community’ while ‘we fight’ ‘this Christian nationalist church,’ referring to NSA’s denomination, Christ Church,” the suit reads.
Specifically, NSA says these actions violate the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, Idaho's Free Exercise of Religion Protected Act and the First Amendment.
City officials say they’re reviewing the lawsuit.
Christ Church has deep ties to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and is being represented by a D.C. law firm in the case.
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