A Christian school’s case against the city of Upper Arlington in Ohio has been revived by a court’s ruling that the city cannot discriminate “to maximize the government’s income-tax revenue.”
The decision by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals returned the case brought by Tree of Life Christian Schools against the city to the lower court for further action.
But the city also interpreted the ruling as a win, explaining in a statement delivered to WND that “the court did not rule on Tree of Life’s claim that the city had violated the federal statute relative to treating religious and non-religious assemblies equally.”
“Instead, the majority decision sends the case back to the district court in Columbus to consider a question that neither side asked the court to consider, whether other institutions existed that could be compared to Tree of Life Christian Schools relative to revenue generation and if such institutions would be treated in the same way.”
The city said it’s zoning code “does not permit any schools, whether public, private, or religious, to be located in the five percent of the city that is zoned for commercial uses.”
But the Alliance Defending Freedom, which is defending the school in court, said the appeals court revived the case because the school had received an adverse ruling in its effort to gain zoning approval.
TOL wants to relocate its four-campus school to a single location, and the appeals judges said a trial court judge should not have granted summary judgment to the city.
City officials refused permission for the school to locate in a vacant building, even though the zoning there permits daycare facilities and other similar uses.
“Local governments can’t use zoning laws to discriminate against religious organizations,” said ADF senior counsel Erik Stanley, who represents the school. “The appeals court rightly understood that federal law prohibits zoning discrimination against religious land use and that Tree of Life presented a strong case of such discrimination. The court of appeals’ opinion strongly signaled that Tree of Life should prevail at trial and that the city cannot use its zoning code to discriminate against religious land uses under the guise of maximizing tax revenue to the city.”
The 6th Circuit ruling said that “by enacting RLUIPA, Congress directed federal courts to scrutinize municipal land-use regulations that function to exclude disfavored religious groups like TOL Christian Schools.”
ADF explained the city’s “main argument in the case has been that it has the power to keep Tree of Life from using its property so that someone else could buy the property who would provide greater tax revenue to the city.”
But the court noted its “obligation is to apply the statute enacted by Congress.”
“We cannot contort its meaning … RLUIPA does not allow the government to treat more favorably land uses that, like TOL Christian Schools, fail to maximize the government’s income-tax revenue … Even the government’s proffered rational basis for its regulation – we want A, we think land use B leads to A, thus we regulate to privilege land use B – does not satisfy RLUIPA’s test.”
Tree of Life has four overcrowded campuses now with 660 students. It bought the old America Online/Time-Warner building in Upper Arlington, where it proposes to grow to 1,300 students.
But the city denied zoning approval for the school, saying that it wanted the property to be used by a business that would generate more tax revenue to the city, ADF said.
from PropagandaGuard https://propagandaguard.wordpress.com/2016/05/22/christian-schools-fight-over-new-campus-revived/
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