Eminent domain abuses disproportionately target religious institutions

Dec 3, 2004

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty today filed an amicus (friend of the court) brief with the United States Supreme Court. The brief supports the petitioners’ claims in Kelo et al. v. City of New London that the municipal government is abusing its eminent domain powers.

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty--an interfaith, nonpartisan, public-interest law firm dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions--shares a common interest with religious organizations nationwide in assuring that rights to religious exercise are not infringed by land-use laws and policies. The brief presents a unique, not often heard perspective on the substantial burdens suffered by religious institutions from eminent domain actions. 

The City of New London, Connecticut, is forcibly evicting the petitioners from their homes in an eminent domain action, although the condemned area is not blighted, the homes are structurally sound, and no highway or other public works project is being constructed. Instead, New London is destroying their homes to transfer land to private parties who promise to develop commercial office space and generate more tax revenue.

In Kelo, the Connecticut Supreme Court granted municipalities unprecedented power to take and condemn private property under a novel conception of public purpose--that of potential economic development and increased tax revenue. “To affirm this expansion of the scope of eminent domain power will grant municipalities a special license to invade the autonomy of and take the property of religious institutions,” the Becket Fund’s brief notes. The brief adds that because “religious institutions are, by their very nature, non-profit and almost universally tax-exempt[,] these fundamental characteristics of religious institutions render their property singularly vulnerable to being taken under the rationale approved by the lower court.”    

If tax and economic interests trump all, religious institutions will be the primary targets for the bulldozers in the name of greater tax revenues for municipalities. Land owned by religious institutions--our nation's quintessential public good providers--risks being forcibly transferred to purely private commercial developers. The brief notes that under the lower court’s “permissive reading of the ‘public use’ requirement, that which makes religious institutions worthy of government praise makes them doubly vulnerable to government avarice.” The power to condemn houses of worship, soup kitchens, and homeless shelters under Kelo is boundless. The case will be argued before the Supreme Court in February.

Resources & Documents

• Becket Fund Amicus Brief, Dec. 3, 2004 (PDF, 295.7KB)
• "Ruling on Property Seizure Rallies Christian Groups," NY Times, July 11, 2005 (PDF, 21.29KB)