Eminent domain halted at church door
By Eric Pfeiffer
WASHINGTON TIMES
February 7, 2006

A Pennsylvania court ruled yesterday that while the government can take away your home to build a parking lot, they can't do it to build a church.

In a 4-3 ruling, the state appeals court said the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority violated separation of church and state when it seized a woman's home in 2003 to help the Hope Partnership, a religious group, build a private school in a "blighted" neighborhood.

In the ruling, Judge Doris A. Smith-Ribner wrote for the majority, "The evidence shows that the Hope Partnership designated the land that it wanted and requested the authority to acquire it, and the authority proceeded to do so. This joint effort demonstrates the entanglement between church and state." Story