Religious freedom law on trial in Texas

Religious freedom law on trial in Texas

The Texas Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the first case at the high court interpreting the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

In 1999, the city of Sinton, near Corpus Christi, adopted a zoning ordinance that eventually led to the shutdown of Philemon Homes, a ministry that served former prison inmates. That same year, then Texas Governor George W. Bush signed into law the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or RFRA, which gives ministries the right to operate free from government regulation.

James Ho, an attorney working with Liberty Legal Institute, will argue the case before the high court on behalf of the ministry. He says the law signed by Bush creates a special set of protections for people of faith.

"The RFRA law, like RFRA laws in other states and like the federal RFRA law, ... create a new paradigm, a special set of protections for people of faith," he says, "and that is a set of protections that the lower courts, and the city, in this case, we believe disregarded, and we're fighting to have these laws enforced so that they mean what they say."

Ho says the case could have statewide and national implications. "I would submit that it's important to any person of faith who believes that when they engage in religious activity that there should be at least a presumption that they should be allowed to practice their faith, unless the government proves up some sort of special reason," Ho says.

It could take several months for justices to issue a ruling in the case.