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Well, here\u2019s something for everyone: Pipelines, eminent domain, nuns, \u2018religious liberty’ or (take your pick) religious privilege.<\/p>\nWell, here\u2019s something for everyone: Pipelines, eminent domain, nuns, \u2018religious liberty’ or (take your pick) religious privilege.<\/p>\n
As the Washington Post<\/em> explains<\/a> the story, an energy company (Williams Cos) wants to run a natural gas pipeline through agricultural land owned by an order of nuns, one of whom, explains the Post<\/em>\u2019s writer, \u201chas always known this land as sacred\u201d.<\/p>\n I’ll let that comment stand there.<\/p>\n What Williams does is pay for an easement to dig up the land and put a pipe in. It then hands back the land to its owners. According to the company\u2019s spokesman, it will compensate farmers for lost crops and will return to inspect whether agricultural output over the pipeline returns to normal.<\/p>\n The nuns are opposed to the project. According to one of their number they \u201cbelieve in sustenance of all creation.\u201d<\/p>\n No matter that, compared with most fossil fuels, natural gas is associated with relatively low CO2 emissions. And no matter (I\u2019m making a guess, but not, I suspect, an unreasonable one) that the nuns make use, directly or indirectly, of fossil fuels themselves.<\/p>\n The Washington Post<\/em>:<\/p>\n The pipeline company first sought without success to negotiate with the nuns. Now as Williams Cos. tries to seize the land by eminent domain, the order is gearing up for a fight in the courtroom \u2014 and a possible fight in the field, as well.<\/p>\n There, smack in the path of the planned pipeline, the nuns have dedicated a new outdoor chapel.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just wanted to symbolize, really, what is already there: This is holy ground,\u201d said Sister Janet McCann, a member of the national leadership team of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, whose 2,000 nuns around the world have made environmental protection and activism a key part of their mission.<\/p>\n The sisters\u2019 chapel is a rudimentary symbol, but a powerful one: eight long benches, a wooden arbor and a pulpit, all on a straw-coated patch of land carved out of the cornfield.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I am no great fan of eminent domain (even if it is sometimes necessary), but the key question here is whether a makeshift chapel (built primarily as a legal device) and claims that this piece of Pennsylvania is \u2018holy land\u2019 should give these nuns a privilege denied almost everyone else – an exemption from the law.<\/p>\n The Washington Post<\/em><\/p>\n The Adorers and their supporters\u2019 nascent faith-based resistance, which has been compared to the anti-pipeline activism led by Native Americans at Standing Rock, N.D., could eventually set a precedent in a murky area of religious freedom law.<\/p>\n U.S. appeals court judges have ruled inconsistently on whether federal law protects religious groups from eminent domain in such cases. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, which covers Delaware, New Jersey and the part of Pennsylvania where the nuns reside, has yet to issue a ruling on the matter. Legal observers say a case could make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is something to this \u2018holy land\u2019 thing,\u201d said Dan Dalton, a Michigan land-use and zoning attorney and the author of a book on the litigation of religious land-use cases. \u201cThere haven\u2019t been a lot of appellate cases. .\u2009.\u2009. It really is a relatively new issue.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2026 In a complaint they filed in federal court Friday, the nuns argued that FERC\u2019s authorization of the pipeline on their property violated their religious freedom, protected under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.<\/p>\n \u201cFERC\u2019s decision to force the Adorers to use land they own to accommodate a fossil fuel pipeline is antithetical to the deeply held religious beliefs and convictions of the Adorers. It places a substantial burden on the Adorers\u2019 exercise of religion,\u201d the nuns\u2019 attorneys wrote.<\/p>\n Another federal law, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, could more specifically protect the nuns, depending on a judge\u2019s interpretation. That law seeks to shield religious institutions from land-use laws that would otherwise impose a substantial burden on their religious exercise. But the nation\u2019s appellate courts have offered differing opinions on whether the law applies to eminent domain. The 3rd Circuit, where the Adorers are located, has never ruled on that question, several lawyers familiar with this area of law said, so the nuns may be the ones to set the precedent.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This will be a\u00a0 story to watch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Well, here\u2019s something for everyone: Pipelines, eminent domain, nuns, \u2018religious liberty’ or (take your pick) religious privilege. As the Washington Post explains the story, an energy company (Williams Cos) wants to run a natural gas pipeline through agricultural land owned … Continue reading