THE CENTRIST: ACLU sues over Chesco township homeless shelter

Monday, May 04, 2009

ACLU sues over Chesco township homeless shelter

I'm not sure what it has to do with civil liberties, but the ACLU has filed a lawsuit against North Coventry Township to force the municipality to allow a church to open a year-round homeless shelter in violation of township zoning laws.

From an article in today's edition of The Pottstown Mercury:

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania, charges that the township and its officials violated the church's rights under the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), the First Amendment and the state Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

The suit names the township as a defendant, along with township zoning officer and building code official Deborah Russo. It seeks to force the township to allow the church to provide temporary emergency shelter to the homeless in the winter.

The legal action stems from an ongoing battle between the township and Shenkel UCC that began in November 2007. At that time, the church sought to participate in a rotating homeless shelter program that is a project of Pottstown area churches involved in what is known as Ministries on Main Street.

Read the full story at the newspaper's Web site.

Originally posted at TONY PHYRILLAS

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Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
--Lord Acton

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Peace, Peace--but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from
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field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life
so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it,
Almighty God! I know not what course others may take;
but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
--Patrick Henry

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine
patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now,
deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we
have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."
--Thomas Paine

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to give them the power at all times to defend it in the legislature and
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do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often
but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights
of the individual."
--Thomas Jefferson

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is quite unfounded that on entering into society we give up any natural rights."
--Thomas Jefferson

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--Thomas Jefferson

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as a barrier against foreign foes... is [one of the] functions of the General Government on which [our citizens] have a right to call."
--Thomas Jefferson

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take place, no matter by whom brought on, we must defend ourselves. If our house be on fire, without
inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it."
--Thomas Jefferson

"I am ever unwilling that [peace] should be disturbed as long as
the rights and interests of the nations can be preserved. But whensoever hostile aggressions on these
require a resort to war, we must meet our duty and convince the world that we are
just friends and brave enemies."
--Thomas Jefferson

"By nature's law, man is at peace with man till some aggression is
committed, which, by the same law, authorizes one to destroy another as
his enemy."
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every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
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by every motive which is sacred or honorable, to watch over the safety of our beloved country
during the troubles which agitate and convulse the residue of the world, and to sacrifice to
that all personal and local considerations."
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to preserve peace, to punish acts in breach of it, and to restore property taken by force within
its limits."
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"By nature's law, man is at peace with man till some aggression
is committed, which, by the same law, authorizes one to destroy another
as his enemy."
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and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it. But the temper and folly of our enemies may
not leave this in our choice."
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"We must indeed all hang together, or, most assuredly,
we shall all hang separately."
--Benjamin Franklin

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by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent
and sudden usurpations."
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it nothing can succeed."
--Abraham Lincoln

"At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we
fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a
blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted)
in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a
track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected?
I answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot,
we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time,
or die by suicide."
--Abraham Lincoln

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support of a cause we believe to be just; it shall not deter me."
--Abraham Lincoln

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good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement
to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor
diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall
be safe from violence when built."
--Abraham Lincoln

"We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean
the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and
the product of his labor; while with others, the same word many mean for some men to do as they please
with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible
things, called by the same name - liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective
parties, called by two different and incompatible names -
liberty and tyranny."
--Abraham Lincoln

"If all do not join now to save the good old ship of the Union this voyage
nobody will have a chance to pilot her on another voyage."
--Abraham Lincoln

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out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust
and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again;
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who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who, at worst,
if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with
those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."
--Theodore Roosevelt

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs,
even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy
much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that
knows not victory nor defeat."
--Theodore Roosevelt

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of private power to a point where it comes stronger than their democratic
state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by
an individual, by a group."
--Franklin D. Roosevelt

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This nation is peaceful, but fierce when stirred to anger. This conflict was begun on the
timing and terms of others. It will end in a way, and at an hour,
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reveals his character."
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so as nobody may believe them."
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and enjoy bright day: But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts benighted walks under the
mid-day sun."
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and fourth tries."
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give it."
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Monday, May 04, 2009

ACLU sues over Chesco township homeless shelter

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