Update: Houston Churches Facing Eminent Domain Invoke 1st Amendment

Houston churches that were facing eminent domain to make way for a new Housing Authority development, have sued to stop the eminent domain based on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).

RFRA is usually only a hot topic when conservative activists want to strengthen it to stop the social issues they oppose. 

But, the use of RFRA by the churches to stop eminent domain adds an added lawyer of constitutional protection. Now the local governmental entity will have to prove:

  • there is a valid public use/benefit
  • + that there is a compelling reason and the exercize of eminent domain is in the least restrictive means possible. 
    • Considering thre were multiple draft plans, the churches have higher odds of being successful

JD Supra

 

 

Previously on Information Intelligence:

Two 5th ward churches are in a brewing eminent domain battle over property that the Houston Housing Authority would like to develop for low income housing and a library. This story has it all- historic churches, a wheel chair bound pastor, and a city relying on recommendations from the neighborhood itself.

The churches: 

  • First Christian Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church
  • Latter Day Deliverance Revival Church

The legal actions:

  • The churches, representated by the Liberty Institute, are seeking to stop the seizure of their land.
  • The city says:
    • Only pursuing eminent domain against the Latter Day Revival Church
    • Negotiating, without using eminent domain, with First Christian Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church
    • And that they relied on recommendations from the Fifth Ward Redevelopment Corporation for the project

Let’s not forget the KY judge, who in 2014  stopped eminent domain at the trial court level because a church’s First amendment rights trump that of a government’s eminent domain authority.

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