Federal Judge allows Buddhist lawsuit to proceed against Army Corps of Engineers

Court denies U.S. motion to dismiss case alleging
Corps failed to mitigate potential damage to religious retreat

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., July 29, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- A federal judge today ruled that the nation's largest Buddhist organization, Soka Gakkai International-USA (SGI-USA), can proceed with its lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers challenging the Corps' massive water reservoir and pumping project that will have a significant adverse impact on SGI-USA's religious retreat and the ability of its members to freely exercise their religious rights.

In a 13-page written decision, U.S. District Judge William Dimitrouleas denied the Army Corps' efforts to dismiss the lawsuit filed in December 2024. The lawsuit alleges the Corps failed to adequately evaluate and mitigate the impacts of the massive project on SGI-USA's decades-old religious retreat facility west of Fort Lauderdale.

SGI-USA's Florida Nature and Culture Center (FNCC) in West Broward County, founded in 1996, hosts thousands of spiritual members every month for multi-day spiritual retreats. Religious retreat participants come to the FNCC with an expectation of serenity, peacefulness and a welcoming place to engage in their spiritual and religious activities. As part of its own commitment to environmental sustainability, the FNCC has permanently allocated one-third of the property for conservation purposes.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' planned 1,250-acre C-11 Impoundment Project, a 1.5 billion-gallon artificial lake, directly borders the FNCC. SGI-USA and the FNCC said its experts have determined the project will cause at least a decade of substantial adverse impacts during construction, impacts that will then continue permanently during operation. These impacts, which include vibration, dust, changes to groundwater, wetlands and wildlife, will physically damage the FNCC and disrupt and prevent SGI-USA members from using the FNCC to exercise their spiritual and religious beliefs.

The Army Corps claimed the SGI-USA and FNCC lawsuit was barred by the statute of limitations, arguing that SGI-USA and FNCC could have filed their case as early as 2012 when the Corps first evaluated the environmental impacts of the project. However, SGI-USA and FNCC successfully argued that the project was not funded by Congress until 2022, and the Corps did not make a final decision to proceed with the project until 2023. The Court also allowed SGI-USA and FNCC to proceed with its claim that the adverse impacts of the Corps' project violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act by imposing substantial burdens on SGI-USA's members' ability to freely exercise their religious beliefs.

In a statement released today, SGI-USA said:

Our aim is to force the Corps to do what it knows the law requires it to do: design, construct and operate the Impoundment based on a full, public and transparent evaluation of the Project's impacts on the surrounding environment, particularly on the FNCC, which directly borders the Project. The Corps must take into account the safety and sanctity of our property, environment, the spiritual activities of our members and the broader community. We seek a balanced approach that aligns the environmental goals of the Project with the protection of our religious and spiritual activities. 

We remain open to constructive dialogue with the Corps to find solutions that preserve the well-being and environmental, spiritual and property rights of our community.

The lawsuit is Case 24-CV-62452-WPD.

SOURCE Soka Gakkai International-USA