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Perhaps yours is one of the many families in our country that pauses to pray before plunging into a sumptuous dinner. Like your parents and grandparents, you choose to “say grace” or “ask the blessing” before meals.
But have you ever considered asking your government’s permission first?
Neither did Daniel Grand, an Orthodox Jew who lives in University Heights, Ohio. A few years ago, he invited around 12 friends to join him in his home to pray. The number is important: Grand’s faith requires him to pray three times a day with a “minyan” of at least 10 Jewish men. On the Sabbath and Jewish holy days, Jews do not drive and limit their ordinary travel, so they need to pray close to home.
Someone shared Grand’s intention with the wrong somebody, and suddenly, he received a letter from the city directing him to “immediately cease and desist any and all” uses of his home as a “place of religious assembly.” If Grand wanted to pray with friends, he’d have to apply for a special-use permit, which the city requires for houses of worship in residential districts.
Grand wasn’t looking to build a temple; he just wanted to pray. Still, trying to cooperate, he applied for the permit. City officials received letters of protest. “I do not want our neighborhood labeled as Jewish,” one read. At a public zoning-commission hearing, Grand was heckled by many and stonewalled by commission members. They directed him to return for a second hearing. Grand declined and quietly withdrew his application.
It didn’t stop there. The city encouraged Grand’s neighbors to spy on him and report any visitors to his home. Squad cars conducted drive-bys . The city began citing Grand for non-existent “housing code violations,” then withheld his certificate of occupancy and tax abatements, costing him thousands of dollars. Sanitation workers intermittently stopped picking up his trash.
The kicker: Grand realized that a permit, even if approved, would require him to convert his home into an official synagogue — and zoning requirements forbade anyone residing in a commercial house of worship. It was a perfect Catch-22: Grand couldn’t pray in his home if he lived there, and he couldn’t live in his house if he prayed there.
Seeing the First Amendment violation here, Grand filed suit and asked the federal courts for help. But the courts told him he would have to wait until he finished the city’s permit application process — which is a little like telling a homeowner to wait until his house finishes burning down before calling the fire department.
The lawsuit , in which Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP and Alliance Defending Freedom represent Grand, also underscores a major “circuit split” in current American jurisprudence. Two federal appeals courts (the 1st and 11th Circuits) have ruled that citizens have access to federal courts as soon as their constitutional rights are violated, while the 3rd, 9th, and now (in Grand’s case) 6th Circuits say that citizens must complete the permitting process first.
So, if Grand lived in Boston or Atlanta, a federal court would have already decided about his constitutional rights, but in Philadelphia, Seattle or Cleveland, the courthouse doors would be closed, as they have been for Grand. And the fact that five circuit courts have heard similar cases — all involving religious practice — shows how widespread and pointed this persecution has become.
To be clear, if Grand had invited friends over for poker or a book club, no city would press him for a special permit to operate a casino or a library. This case is a playbook for government-sponsored religious discrimination, and local authorities nationwide are executing it, invoking zoning tools that treat faith as a problem to be managed rather than a freedom to be protected.
It’s all blatantly unconstitutional. And when this many federal circuits cannot agree on when you can go to court, the case is ripe for Supreme Court review. God willing, the justices are willing to have a look. Unless they do, Grand — and many of us — may not have a prayer.
John Bursch is senior counsel and vice president of appellate advocacy at Alliance Defending Freedom .
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