Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond is asking the Trump administration to halt a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the City of Broken Arrow over a denied rezoning request for a proposed mosque and commercial development.
In a letter to President Donald Trump and U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, Drummond called the investigation an example of federal overreach and urged the Justice Department to withdraw or suspend its investigative demand issued on July 17.
“The investigation is federal overreach of the first order,” Drummond said. “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.”
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is investigating whether the city’s zoning actions violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. According to the release, the department has not determined whether federal law was violated.
Drummond also argued the investigation seeks years of city records and communications involving private citizens, raising concerns about free speech and local control. He said his office will assist the City of Broken Arrow in responding to the federal investigation.
