ThisWeek UA 05/19/2011
Tree of Life Christian Schools will not be opening classroom doors in Upper Arlington any time soon.
The organization, which bought the former Time Warner/AOL building at 5000 Arlington Centre Blvd. last year, lost its federal preliminary injunction case against the city.
Judge George C. Smith, of the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Ohio, Eastern Division, ruled on April 27, that Tree of Life demonstrated only a slight chance of success on the merits of its Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act discrimination case.
A preliminary injunction would have allowed Tree of Life to hold classes while the court decided on the case, filed on behalf of Tree of Life by the Alliance Defense Fund, an alliance of Christian attorneys focused on the protection of religious rights, according to the ADF website.
Preliminary injunctions require that the court must consider four factors, which are to be balanced, but not necessarily individually met: “(1) whether the movant has a strong or substantial likelihood of success on the merits; (2) whether the movant would suffer irreparable injury without the relief requested; (3) whether issuance of the injunction will cause substantial harm to others; and (4) whether the public interest will be served by issuance of the injunction.”
The predominant factor is the first one, according to court documents.
In this case, Smith’s opinion on the first factor is that the court believes the city’s Unified Development Ordinance passes a rational basis review and therefore doesn’t violate the Equal Protection Clause. It is the court’s belief that Tree of Life’s likelihood of success is slight, not substantial enough to warrant the award of a preliminary injunction.
Prior to purchasing the building, Tree of Life was contacted by city officials who said that zoning would not allow for the school. An option that Tree of Life has not exercised has been to seek a change to the building’s zoning. Prior to filing the current litigation, Tree of Life requested a conditional use permit from the Board of Zoning and Planning, but that request was denied based on the city’s interpretation of the current zoning code.
If Tree of Life had been awarded the injunction, the organization would have received complete relief and would not have allowed the city the opportunity to present the case at trial, according to court documents. The documents further explain that allowing Tree of Life to begin using the building as a school would make future court decisions on the merits of the case virtually impossible.
“I was happy we prevailed and we’re able to continue to enforce our zoning code for the benefit of the city,” said Jeanine Hummer, city attorney. “We feel we will continue to prevail; however, this may be litigated for a very, very long time. Tree of Life could have chosen to go through the appropriate zoning process instead, and would likely have already completed that process by now.”
Tree of Life superintendent Todd Marrah, made no comment, directing ThisWeek to the ADF.
“Of course we would have wanted the injunction to be granted, but we understand the judge’s decision,” ADF senior legal counsel Erik Stanley said. “It is my experience that judges are traditionally reluctant to give an injunction in property cases like this. We felt that the judge’s analysis was good and gave us an understanding of what he was looking for.”
According to Stanley, a scheduling meeting between ADF, the city and the court will take place in the next two weeks, at which point the parties will have a better understanding of the trial timeline.