(RNS) — For Gary Perez and Matilde Torres, like their ancestors before them, the river bend in Brackenridge Park in South Texas is more than the oak trees along the riverbank, the slow-moving water and the stars arrayed above at night. It is a sacred place, where the resident cormorants, they believe, take their prayers to the heavens.
That is why, when the city of San Antonio decided to remove 69 of 83 trees and prevent bird nesting in the river bend to allow the remodeling of a wall, Perez and Torres, ceremonial leaders of the Lipan-Apache Native American Church, sued to protect it on religious grounds.
Last week, the Texas Supreme Court heard their lawsuit challenging the city’s actions under a state constitutional amendment approved by Texas voters in 2021 to deal with restrictions on religious services imposed by local officials during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Religious Services Amendment to the Texas Constitution says that the state or a political subdivision of the state “may not enact, adopt or issue a statute, order, proclamation, decision, or rule that prohibits or limits religious services.”
John Greil, an attorney and professor at the University of Texas law school’s Law & Religion Clinic, represents Perez and Torres in Perez v. City of San Antonio. He noted that Perez and Torres are the first claimants to bring a suit under the Religious Services Amendment, giving the court’s decision in the case significant wei …