Jun 11, 2008
Today (June 11, 2008) Judge Royal Furgeson, a federal judge in San Antonio, Texas, issued a consent decree that ended seven years of litigation between Castle Hills First Baptist Church and the city of Castle Hills, Texas, with a major victory for the church.
In the late 1990s, Castle Hills, a suburb of San Antonio, repeatedly denied the church permission to expand its church and school buildings, as well as the use of its adjacent property it owned for parking. The city also went on a rhetorical and regulatory rampage against the church, calling the church a “cancer, feeding on homes in much the same way as a cancerous tumor feeds on healthy cells,” and enacting parking regulations that forbade parking near the church — but only on Sunday mornings.
“Good things come to those who wait,” said Eric Rassbach, National Litigation Director at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, “but it sure would have been better for all concerned if the city had realized it was wrong to discriminate against the church in the first place. We’re pleased that our client was persistent enough to finally receive justice.”
Castle Hills First Baptist filed suit in 2001 and engaged the Becket Fund to represent it. The Becket Fund’s efforts led Judge Furgeson to issue a favorable decision for the church in 2004 and the consent decree today.
The consent decree allows the church to add on the fourth floor it had requested permission to build and to use its adjacent property for overflow parking and other purposes. Judge Furgeson will keep jurisdiction over the case to ensure that Castle Hills complies with its obligations under the consent decree.
Lori Windham, who is legal counsel at the Becket Fund, was a student at the church’s high school when permit applications began.
“Part of the reason I went into religious liberty law is that I saw what happened to my own school,” said Windham, who graduated from Harvard Law School in 2005 and today represents people of all religions in their efforts to practice their faith without government interference. “I know how hard it can be when religious schools don’t get fair treatment from the local government. What a relief to see the church’s rights finally vindicated. Go Eagles!”
To read consent decree, click here.
See previous post here.
The Washington-based Becket Fund for Religious Liberty is a nonpartisan, interfaith, public-interest law firm dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions.
To arrange an interview with a Becket Fund attorney, contact Tom Carter at 202-349-7205, or 202-538-2044 (cell) or becketfund.carter@gmail.com.
For more information about The Becket Fund visit www.becketfund.org.