A zoning technicality is being used to lock Americans out of court when the government chills their First Amendment rights. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case of Grand v. City of University Heights, which centers on the question of whether citizens need a permit to pray in their own homes.
The Case
Daniel Grand, an Orthodox Jew, was told by the city of University Heights, Ohio, that he needed a special use permit to use his home as a place of religious assembly. Grand had invited a dozen neighbors to pray at his home, but someone complained, and the city sent him a cease-and-desist letter. Grand cancelled his next prayer meeting and applied for the permit, but the process was hostile and Kafkaesque.
Grand was heckled at a zoning board hearing, and one neighbor voiced fear that the neighborhood would be labeled as Jewish. The special use permit would have changed Grand’s home to a house of worship under the zoning code, meaning he could pray there but not sleep there. Grand abandoned the permit process and instead filed a civil rights lawsuit to protect his First Amendment right to pray in his own home.
The Issue
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals threw out Grand’s case, citing a rule that a land-use claim isn’t ripe until government officials reach a final decision through the prescribed administrative process. However, this rule makes sense in a takings case, where the injury depends on the administrative process. In a First Amendment case, the injury occurs the moment a citizen receives a cease-and-desist letter, as Grand did.
The Supreme Court should answer that citizens do not need a permit to pray in their own homes. The Constitution does not make Americans ask permission before they gather and pray in their own home. When an official demands a permit to pray, citizens should be able to walk into court right away, without having to first accede to the unconstitutional permit request by subjecting themselves to a zoning process.
Original reporting: Fox News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
