The following comes from an October 21 story on ChristianPost.com.
A federal jury ruled that the city of San Diego, California violated the religious rights of a Catholic school by denying it a permit for a modernization plan, awarding the faith-based institution more than $1.1 million.
In a trial before U.S. District Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo, the jury on Friday determined that the city broke federal law when some councilmembers refused to approve Academy of Our Lady of Peace‘s modernization plan, which had been approved by the city planning commission.
Dan Dalton, an allied attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom who represents the school, called the city council’s act “illegal interference from politicians who won’t place students first.”
“It’s irresponsible for city officials to abuse city zoning restrictions to shut down a religious school’s ability to serve its students,” Dalton said in a statement issued by Alliance Defending Freedom, an alliance-building legal ministry that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.
The high school, the oldest in San Diego, submitted a plan to the city in May 2007 to build a new classroom building and parking structure on its own land. But some local residents opposed the plan, claiming that three homes on the school’s land that would be removed to make way for the new buildings were historic and could not be destroyed.
The San Diego Developmental Service Department unanimously approved a conditional use permit for the school in October 2008, citing 24,000 similarly styled homes that existed in the North Park community. The opponents then appealed the decision to the city council, which reversed that decision in 2009….
The school filed its suit, Academy of Our Lady of Peace v. City of San Diego, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California in May 2009. The lawsuit stated that the city violated the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which protects faith-based organizations in land-use disputes. The lawsuit also cited both federal and state constitutional violations….
To read the entire story, click here.
See Catholic Education deny’s Socialists access to children that they are trying to indoctrinate. The problem with them is that even when they infiltrate, control is not total.
That is the motivation behind denying this license.
San Diego is the city that was successfully sued by some of its fire fighters whom they ordered to take part in the annual Gay Pride parade and were sexually harassed by the “citizens” along the parade route. This is a broken city, with its priorities showing that its out of touch with Americans. It’s much like the rest of California – trying to establish a case for secession from the USA – and doing an excellent job of it. I hope they get it done.
Sanity and Justice in California? It almost gives one hope.
hooray!
if people don’t want to deal with church bells, school children, and parking issues, they should not buy a house near a catholic parish.
to try to prevent a catholic schol from doing more for itss students is just plain awful.
Slick way to get funding. Well planned.
But that is the good news; the bad news is that the 1.1 million dollars judgment will be enough only to pay for the stripes on the new parking lot.
JLS, that’s because the stripes are being done in SOLID GOLD!
max labor isn’t cheap anymore….its costly in California due to it having too many regulations!
Congratulations on this school, I applaud your perseverance, God bless you and stay faithful to Christ and His church!
And, they deserved every penny of it!
“…claiming that three homes on the school’s land that would be removed to make way for the new buildings were historic and could not be destroyed…. The San Diego Developmental Service Department unanimously approved a conditional use permit for the school in October 2008, citing 24,000 similarly styled homes that existed in the North Park community.”
Classic! So historical and irreplaceable that tens of thousands of copies were built!
One wonders if the consciences of some of our public servants are still functioning. Lies and deceptions so easily come to them.