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No, not a Christian prayer group, a Jewish prayer group. That's the entire point here. Daniel Grand, an Orthodox Jewish man living in University Heights, Ohio wanted to hold a prayer group with his friends at his home. No big deal, right? Most Christian churches start out as Bible study groups or prayer groups that meet in members' homes, and this goes on all the time with nobody saying anything about it. Extending that same privilege to a member of the Jewish faith, though, was not something that the Poor Oppressed Christians in the community could stand. The city targeted Grand, insisting that he could not pray with his friends in his home without a special permit establishing it as a "place of religious assembly." Then, when he tried to do just that, the city turned him down.
Attorneys with Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe and Alliance Defending Freedom represent Daniel Grand, who, in January 2021, e-mailed a dozen friends to invite them to his home to pray as a minyan, a “threshold requirement for the most sacred acts of Jewish communal worship,” that upcoming Sabbath. But when city officials found out about the e-mail, and before any minyan convened, the city demanded that Grand “immediately cease and desist any and all” uses of his home as a “place of religious assembly” unless he first obtained a special use permit, which the city requires for houses of worship in residential districts.
When Grand filed a lawsuit, federal courts closed their doors because Grand had not completed the permitting process—even though successfully obtaining a permit would have required Grand and his family to leave their home. “Every American has the right to host a prayer gathering in his home, and he certainly doesn’t need a city permit to do so. When government officials forbid that, courts must hold those individuals accountable, immediately,” said ADF Senior Counsel and Vice President of Appellate Advocacy John Bursch. “The city’s actions underscore a troubling trend of weaponizing zoning laws against people of faith while allowing other gatherings of the same size, like book clubs or poker nights, to meet without issue. We’re pleased the Supreme Court will hear this case.”
The reply brief filed in May in Grand v. City of University Heights explains that city officials targeted Grand because of his religious practice. He was never trying to establish his private residence as a synagogue; he was simply hosting a prayer gathering with friends. City officials went so far as to order police to spy on Grand’s home and encouraged his neighbors to file complaints if anyone visited. The city then issued unfounded property violations, unlawfully withheld his certificate of occupancy and tax abatements—which cost him thousands of dollars in additional taxes—regularly failed to collect his trash, and engaged in a broader pattern of harassment that went far beyond ordinary zoning enforcement.
The brief further notes how Grand canceled his planned minyan as ordered and tried to comply with the city’s directive by submitting a permit application. But neighbors opposed the permit with letters protesting, “I am not Jewish, and I do not want our neighborhood labeled as Jewish.” The city then broadcast a public hearing marked by overt hostility to Jewish religious practice.
This is the playbook that these Poor Oppressed Christian snowflakes always use. They feel oppressed by the mere existence of any religion but theirs, and will stop at nothing to stamp out anyone just trying to exercise their religious freedoms. A group of friends getting together to pray is not a synagogue and should not be treated as such. City zoning codes are intended to deal with, for example, large numbers of people converging on a place of worship that could stress city infrastructure. But this minyan was a quorum of about a dozen people. That's the same size as a regular house party, which as far as I know is still legal in Ohio.
This case is now before the Supreme Court, which will decide whether or not to take it up. I would like to think that would be a good thing, since it seems to me that religious expression is explicitly constitutionally protected and any reasonable person would see that. I would also hope that the Christians on the court would realize that allowing a city to harass a Jewish prayer group would allow it to do the same to Christians. With today's court, though, I have no idea what their ruling might be. They seem so in line with the Poor Oppressed Christian agenda that their recent religious rulings make little sense.
