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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A city agency violated the separation of church and state when it seized a woman's home to help a religious group build a private school in a blighted Philadelphia neighborhood, a state appeals court ruled Monday. In a 4-3 ruling, the Commonwealth Court said the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority should not have taken the property in 2003 to allow the Hope Partnership to build a middle school. The court said the seizure by eminent domain ran afoul of a clause in the U.S. Constitution that keeps Congress from establishing religion or preventing its free exercise. The Hope Partnership is a venture of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus and the Sisters of Mercy. "The evidence shows that the Hope Partnership designated the land that it wanted and requested the authority to acquire it, and the authority proceeded to do so," wrote Judge Doris A. Smith-Ribner, writing for the majority. "This joint effort demonstrates the entanglement between church and state."
The authority may not take private property, then give it to a religious group for its private development purposes, the court ruled. In a dissent, Judge Dan Pellegrini said there was no evidence that the project was designed to establish a religion, but rather was meant to serve residents of a poor neighborhood. Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that New London, Conn., had the authority to take homes for a private development project. That ruling has been greeted with widespread criticism, and several states have been reviewing their laws related to eminent domain. | 
