Texas city to become test case for state's religious freedom law
Dec. 27, 2006

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — When a pastor created a rehabilitation program for parolees near his church, the city of Sinton stepped in to stop it.

Within months of the program's start in 1998, officials in the small city just north of Corpus Christi barred prison parolees from living within 1,000 feet of churches, schools and other certain areas.

Grace Christian Fellowship's challenge of that 1999 ordinance has reached the Texas Supreme Court. The church and its pastor, Rick Barr, say the city broke a Texas law that state legislators passed later in the year to curtail government interference in religious practices.

The Texas Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments in March or April on whether Sinton's zoning ordinance violates the state's Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a law that then-Gov. George W. Bush endorsed. the rest