June 28, 2005

Post-Kelo: Churches Are Especially Vulnerable

In the wake of the Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. New London, houses of worship - churches, synagogues, temples and mosques - may be most at risk of government seizure, warns Donald Sensing...

It's not our homes that are most at risk despite this case. It’s America’s churches, synagogues and mosques. If the purported intention of such property condemnation and seizure is increasing tax revenue, as Justice Stevens clearly believed it was, then there is no kind of building more vulnerable than a house of worship, for the simple reason that cities do not collect property taxes from houses of worship, nor any other kind of tax.

Furthermore, churches especially tend to occupy choice urban and suburban real estate because when towns were founded, one of the very earliest buildings to be erected was a church, almost always several churches of different denominations. In every city and town in America you will find churches sitting on what is now some of the most valuable land there.

But remember, U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr., a candidate for the U.S. Senate, thinks the Kelo decision is a "positive" thing.