Agreement ends Falwell lawsuit challenging Virginia church property limits

LYNCHBURG, Va. (AP) The Rev. Jerry Falwell's church and the state of Virginia agreed to end Falwell's federal lawsuit over an 18th-century law limiting how much land a church can own.

Lawyers on both sides in Falwell's suit agreed Tuesday that the law does not apply to the Thomas Road Baptist Church, which plans to expand. The church was incorporated in April after U.S. District Judge Norman K. Moon struck down another state law that had barred churches from becoming corporations, which are not subject to the land limits.

Moon agreed with the lawyers' decision Tuesday and said he will rule that the property restrictions do not apply to Falwell's church. The decision made a trial on Falwell's constitutional challenge of the rules unnecessary.

''This gives the church the ability it needs to expand,'' said church attorney Jerry Falwell Jr., who represented his father in the case.

The law, designed to prevent churches from becoming too powerful, bars a church from owning more than 15 acres in a city or town or 250 acres in a county. Falwell wanted the law overturned so he can build a 12,000-seat sanctuary on 146 acres near Liberty University in Lynchburg.

The property law and the former ban on church incorporation were rooted in Thomas Jefferson's 1779 religious freedom statute for Virginia, which called for a strict separation of church and state. Virginia and West Virginia are the only states with the church land restrictions.