The city told a man he needed a permit to pray in his own living room. The Supreme Court just agreed that’s worth a second look.
Daniel Grand is an Orthodox Jew who lives in University Heights, Ohio. In January 2021, he emailed about a dozen friends and invited them to walk to his house for a Sabbath minyan, the quorum of 10 adults Jewish law requires for certain communal prayers. Orthodox practice forbids driving on the Sabbath, so a home gathering wasn’t just a convenience. It was the only way he could pray with a minyan at all. Before a single prayer was said, the city’s law director sent him a cease-and-desist letter ordering him to stop using his home as “a place of religious assembly” unless he got a special use permit.
City officials went further, directing police to drive past his house and encouraging neighbors to report visitors. One neighbor wrote in opposition that she didn’t want the area “labeled as Jewish.” Grand withdrew his permit application rather than move his family, then sued. The lower courts threw his case out, ruling he’d jumped the gun by suing before the city reached a final permitting decision. In June, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Grand v. City of University Heights, and the question it’s taking up says as much about the state of religious liberty as the underlying dispute does…