The legal battle over the redevelopment of a site inside Brackenridge Park sacred to Native Americans could head to the U.S. Supreme Court after two lower courts sided with the City of San Antonio.
Lawyers representing San Antonio-area tribal leaders filed a petition this week asking the nation’s highest court to review a June 2025 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which allowed the City of San Antonio to proceed with a portion of its redevelopment project at the park north of downtown.
Members of the Lipan Native American Church first brought the lawsuit against the City of San Antonio in 2023 to protect trees from removal at a site that’s been a place of worship for centuries and holds deep spiritual meaning for local tribal ceremonies.
The city’s renovations are part of a $2.5 million Brackenridge Park revitalization project, first approved by voters as part of a 2017 bond that totaled $850 million. Plans for the park include removing some trees to maintain and revamp the park while mitigating its bird population.
City officials maintain the renovations are needed to repair crumbling river walls constructed in the 1920s, stabilize the foundation of an 1870s pump house, improve public access and restore portions of the park, the Express-News reports.
The tribal leaders’ latest petition argues the city’s plans to remove heritage trees would drive away nesting double-crested cormorants and would permanently alter the site’s “spiritual ecology,” making it impossible to practice religious rituals there.
Gary Perez and Matilde Torres, members of the Lipan Native American Church, are plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which alleges the planned renovations violate their religious rights under the First Amendment, the Texas Constitution, the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and a new clause in the Texas Constitution that prohibits limiting religious services.
The members of Lipan Native American Church are represented by First Liberty Institute and the Law and Religion Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law.
Earlier this year, city officials said phase one of the project was delayed while waiting on federal permits while phase two simultaneously underwent the city’s historic review process, TPR reports.
Separately, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery ruled that the city could continue its bird mitigation and remove some of the trees it targeted for cutting. However, he also required the city to grant access to a fenced-off area in the park so the Native American church members could conduct ceremonies.
The Lipan Native American Church appealed that decision with the Fifth Circuit.
The notoriously conservative Fifth Circuit, whose jurisdiction includes Louisiana and Texas, determined the project doesn’t substantially impede the church’s religious ceremonies.
Attorneys for the Indigenous plaintiffs are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review that ruling, arguing in the petition that courts “are not arbiters of theological truth. The Free Exercise Clause forbids courts from overruling a religious practitioner’s beliefs, while the Establishment Clause prohibits government officials from announcing religious dogma.”
Whether the high court will accept the petition or not remains a question. The U.S. Supreme Court only hears oral arguments in about 80 of the 8,000 cases it is asked to review annually, according to its website.
Nonetheless, Native American artifacts dating back several thousand years identify the park as one of the most significant archeological sites in Texas, plaintiffs argue. The park is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated as a National Antiquities Landmark.
“San Antonio can redevelop the area without bulldozing a centuries old native American religious site,” Stephanie Taub, Senior Counsel for First Liberty Institute, stated in a press release. “The Lipan church relies on the unique spiritual ecology of the ancient riverbend. The city telling them they can ‘just go worship elsewhere’ is nothing short of the government redefining their religious beliefs.”
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