Religious discrimination? Rowlett church says that's the real motive in dispute over early voting
ROWLETT — A Rowlett church is accusing the city's mayor of religious discrimination for his opposition to holding voting there.
"This is completely unlawful discrimination," said Hiram Sasser, an attorney with First Liberty Institute on behalf of Freedom Place Church.
In a letter to the city, First Liberty Institute accused Rowlett of violating the U.S. and Texas Constitutions by threatening to close the church's doors.
Last week, the city informed the church it discovered its "certificate of occupancy was issued in error" and that it had 10 days to submit a parking plan to avoid having it revoked.
Pastor Kason Huddleston said the city manager himself delivered it.
"I said, 'Do I have a CO?' He said, 'Yes,'" said Huddleston. "Who did that erroneously, made the mistake? And he owned it, said they did it. So, that's not my problem. It's yours."
The church's limited parking has become a point of concern after it was chosen to serve as Dallas County's only early voting site in Rowlett.
During the press conference at the church, parked cars were blocked in and Democratic precinct chair Kenneth Williams was surveying the site.
"Well, I'm hoping that turnout is huge. It's such an important election, " said Williams. "This parking only has, by my count, about 15 parking spaces. You have to cross two streets to get over and it's right near the roundabout, which has cars kind of come flying down there all the time…I'm perplexed as to why we would do it here."
Huddleston dismissed concerns about parking, saying there's plenty of parking in the surrounding area.
"There's parking all across the downtown in this little, this little area here," said Huddleston. "We have parking agreements with the various neighboring parking lots, including a church just up the street."
First Liberty attorneys say the true problem is the city's mayor, Blake Margolis.
"The mayor has confessed via email that really it's about religious hostility against a church serving as a polling location," said Sasser. "Because Mayor Margolis does not want a church to be a polling location, the city has decided that they will revoke the certificate of occupancy."
Their evidence? In a 2023 email, Margolis wrote, "The Rowlett city council will not allow voting to occur in any church building."
Margolis told CBS News Texas neither he nor the city council have had any part in the occupancy certificate issue. Margolis said he's not concerned about every church's ability to remain neutral, but he is concerned about Freedom Place because of its previous endorsement of political candidates.
"Serving as a polling location is not, does not give the government license to discriminate against your political speech or your free speech rights," said Sasser.
First Liberty attorneys requested the city withdraw its letter regarding the church's occupancy certificate, or else.
"Or we're going to have to go to the courthouse and have a judge explain to Mayor Margolis that this is a violation of the law and you're not allowed to do this," said Sasser.
