This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Meck, S. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Zoning and Anti-Semitism in the 1920s: The Case of Cleveland Jewish Orphan Home v. Village of University Heights and Its Aftermath

American Planning Association and Goucher College

In 1925, a Cleveland, Ohio, Jewish orphanage brought the first federal lawsuit involving zoning and religious discrimination. The case was Cleveland Jewish Orphan Home v. Village of University Heights. It is historically significant because it documents how federal courts treated a local government’s application of its zoning regulations for anti-Semitic purposes, the darker side of American land-use controls. This article describes the controversy over the proposed relocation of the home from the city of Cleveland to the village of University Heights, a then-small community of five hundred, and the Village’s decision to deny the necessary zoning approval. It follows the litigation through the federal district court, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court. The article chronicles the village’s continuing efforts to impede construction of the home by blocking the provision of a public school for the orphans after it had lost the federal case. It concludes with a commentary on the broader themes of the litigation, including its importance to planning law as an early recognition of the arbitrary and exclusionary dimensions of zoning, particularly as it affected the substantive due process rights of a religious-based social service organization.

Key Words: zoning • anti-Semitism • Cleveland • Newton D. Baker • discrimination

Journal of Planning History, Vol. 4, No. 2, 91-128 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/1538513205275236


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?