{"id":333,"date":"2015-08-20T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-08-20T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/informedintel.com\/account\/eminentdomain\/wp-eminentdomain\/2015\/08\/20\/update-houston-churches-facing-eminent-domain-invoke-1st-amendment\/"},"modified":"2015-08-20T01:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-08-20T01:00:00","slug":"update-houston-churches-facing-eminent-domain-invoke-1st-amendment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/informedintel.com\/account\/eminentdomain\/wp-eminentdomain\/update-houston-churches-facing-eminent-domain-invoke-1st-amendment\/","title":{"rendered":"Update: Houston Churches Facing Eminent Domain Invoke 1st Amendment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>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\u00a0the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).<\/p>\n<p>RFRA is usually only a hot topic when conservative activists want to strengthen it to stop the social issues they oppose.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>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:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>there is a valid public use\/benefit<\/li>\n<li>+ that there is a compelling reason and the exercize of eminent domain is in the least restrictive means possible.\u00a0\n<ul>\n<li>Considering thre were multiple draft plans, the churches have higher odds of being successful<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jdsupra.com\/legalnews\/houston-housing-authority-sued-under-41223\/\">JD Supra<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Previously on Information Intelligence:<\/p>\n<p>Two 5th ward churches are in a brewing eminent domain battle over property that the Houston Housing Authority\u00a0would 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.<\/p>\n<p>The churches:\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>First Christian Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church<\/li>\n<li>Latter Day Deliverance Revival Church<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The legal actions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The churches, representated by the Liberty Institute, are seeking to stop the seizure of their land.<\/li>\n<li>The city says:\n<ul>\n<li>Only pursuing eminent domain against the\u00a0Latter Day Revival Church<\/li>\n<li>Negotiating, without using eminent domain, with\u00a0First Christian Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church<\/li>\n<li>And that they relied on recommendations from the\u00a0Fifth Ward Redevelopment Corporation for the project<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Let&#8217;s not forget the KY judge, who in 2014 \u00a0stopped eminent domain at the trial court level because a church&#8217;s First amendment rights trump that of a government&#8217;s eminent domain authority.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.houstonchronicle.com\/news\/houston-texas\/houston\/article\/Fifth-Ward-churches-file-suit-with-housing-agency-6425269.php\">Houston Chronicle\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.houstonpress.com\/news\/in-fight-for-survival-fifth-ward-churches-sue-houston-housing-authority-7648644\">Houston Press<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/legalinsurrection.com\/2015\/08\/city-of-houston-threatens-to-steal-land-from-decades-old-churches-using-eminent-domain\/?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LegalInsurrection+%28Le%C2%B7gal+In%C2%B7sur%C2%B7rec%C2%B7tion%29\">Legal Insurrection<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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\u00a0the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).<\/p>\n<p>RFRA is usually only a hot topic when conservative activists want to strengthen it to stop the social issues they oppose.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>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:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>there is&#8230;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,4,37,2,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-freedom-of-religion","category-legal-trend","category-local-government-trend","category-private-property-rights","category-public-use-or-benefit","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/informedintel.com\/account\/eminentdomain\/wp-eminentdomain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/informedintel.com\/account\/eminentdomain\/wp-eminentdomain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/informedintel.com\/account\/eminentdomain\/wp-eminentdomain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/informedintel.com\/account\/eminentdomain\/wp-eminentdomain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/informedintel.com\/account\/eminentdomain\/wp-eminentdomain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/informedintel.com\/account\/eminentdomain\/wp-eminentdomain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/informedintel.com\/account\/eminentdomain\/wp-eminentdomain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/informedintel.com\/account\/eminentdomain\/wp-eminentdomain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/informedintel.com\/account\/eminentdomain\/wp-eminentdomain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}