In a unanimous ruling, the Texas Supreme Court found that the town of Sinton violated the state Religious Freedom Restoration Act by passing zoning laws that essentially outlawed a pair of religious halfway houses.
Sinton — a San Patricio County town of less than 6,000 residents — clearly placed a substantial burden on Pastor Rick Barr when it effectively banned his halfway houses from locating inside city limits in 1999, said the opinion by Justice Nathan Hecht.
“As a practical matter, the ordinance ended Barr’s ministry, as the City Council surely knew it would,” Hecht wrote.
Further, he wrote, the city failed to prove that its interest in protecting citizens outweighed Barr’s right to practice his religion.
You can read the ruling here. Dallas Morning News coverage is here.
