Church Property Protected from Eminent Domain SeizureMay 5, 2005 Settlement Reached Between Living Faith Ministries and Camden County Improvement Authority The Camden County Improvement Authority has officially agreed not to use its eminent domain power to seize the property of Living Faith Ministries, the 6,000-member, 20-year-old New Jersey church represented by The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. The County yielded to the authority of the Constitution and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) and entered into a consent order -- approved by the federal court in New Jersey -- not to take the Church's property within three months of the Becket Fund filing suit.
"We applaud county officials for their willingness to take a seat at the bargaining table and recognize that the Church's ministry to the community is not inconsistent with their plans for revitalizing Camden County," said Becket Fund Of Counsel Roman P. Storzer.
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty -- an international, interfaith public-interest law firm dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions -- maintains that the Authority's attempt to seize Living Faith's Church, demolish it, and transfer the property to a private developer for the purpose of building private residential units violates the First and Fifth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution and RLUIPA. "Frankly, this case should be a lesson for local governments nationwide," noted Jared Leland, Media and Legal Counsel for The Becket Fund. "The Constitution does not give municipalities carte blanche to seize the property of churches in the name of economic development. Community redevelopment must be pursued with proper sensitivity to religious freedom."
Leland further noted that The Becket Fund recently cautioned the U.S. Supreme Court in Kelo v. City of New London that application of an eminent domain standard allowing local governments to take private property for private development strictly to increase tax revenue would unlawfully target religious institutions that are by nature non-profit and by law tax-exempt.
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