In many communities nationwide, eminent domain is a very serious controversy. Courts have ruled that private property can be seized for public use, and more recently, in the now-infamous Kelo ruling, private property can be seized for private use.
But here’s an interesting twist — how about seizing private property for religious use?
A city agency violated the separation of church and state when it seized a woman’s home to help a religious group build a private school in a blighted Philadelphia neighborhood, a state appeals court ruled yesterday.
In a 4-3 ruling, the Commonwealth Court said the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority should not have condemned Mary Smith’s property in North Philadelphia in 2003 so that the Hope Partnership for Education could build a middle school. The court said the seizure by eminent domain ran afoul of the First Amendment’s establishment clause.
The partnership is a venture started by the Society of the Holy Child Jesus and the Sisters of Mercy, two Roman Catholic groups. The court ruled the authority may not take private property, then give it to a religious group for its private development purposes.
In this case, the Roman Catholic groups picked the land it wanted, approached local officials about taking it through eminent domain, and the local government agreed. This “entanglement between church and state” was legally problematic.
The lawyer representing the woman whose home was seized said, “In terms of Pennsylvania, at least, what the court is saying is that the … rationale of the U.S. Supreme Court does not give a blank check to take property, even if it’s blighted, without a public purpose.”
Interesting. Will conservatives who disagreed with the Kelo ruling reverse course on this case because of a pro-religion reflex? Would the Supreme Court make a distinction between seizing for commercial purposes and seizing for ministerial purposes? Hmm.