Eminent domain ruling complicating for churches

By Tom Strode - Jun 30, 2005

The Supreme Court decided June 27 to permit local governments to seize private property for economic development in a decision that is expected to complicate matters for churches.

In a 5-4 decision June 23, the justices ruled a city’s use of eminent domain to transfer property from one private party to another may qualify as a “public use” protected by the Constitution. More conservative members of the high court criticized the ruling as an abandonment of a “long-held, basic limitation on government power.”

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty predicted the high court’s decision in Kelo v. New London would not result in the seizure of church property but said it will cause problems.

“The decision yesterday did not have a damaging impact on religious institutions,” said Jared Leland, the Becket Fund’s media and legal counsel, June 24. “It did remove, however, an extra layer of protection that religious institutions would have had.”

Churches may still rely upon the First Amendment and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act to protect them, Leland said.

“The only problem is, we’re going to have a lot more of those cases,” Leland said. “We’re still going to win the cases, but it’s going to be a tremendous headache.”

The majority in the opinion consisted of Associate Justices John Paul Stevens, Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer. Dissenting were Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Associates Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

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