First Liberty Institute, a legal organization specializing in religious liberty cases, and law firm Baker Botts—representing Magnolia Bible Church, Magnolia's First Baptist Church and Believers Fellowship—filed a lawsuit in the Montgomery County District Court against the city of Magnolia on May 14 regarding the institutional water and wastewater rate category implemented last April. The institutional category applies to tax-exempt, nonprofit and government entities, which includes churches and schools. Jeremy Dys, deputy general counsel for First Liberty Institute, said the city is in violation of the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act. TRFRA is the state's version of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which was made federal law in 1993. "[TRFRA] simply says if the state substantially burdens someone's free exercise of religion, they have to present a compelling justification for doing so, and then prove that they've also acted in the least restrictive means possible," Dys said. Dys said TRFRA requires that a letter be sent to the defendant notifying them of a lawsuit at least 60 days in advance of the actual filing. Counsel for the churches sent a letter to the city Dec. 12—five months prior to filing the lawsuit—asking the city to reverse the institutional water rate category, or the churches would be forced to sue. The city confirmed receipt of the letter, but did not reverse the rates, Dys said. Because of the new rate category, the churches have experienced water and wastewater bills three or four times higher than when they were charged the same rate as commercial businesses, which Dys said is a significant burden. It has caused some churches to cut back on services and programs they would have otherwise provided, he said. "If they're not going to bring themselves into compliance with the law voluntarily, then we'll just simply have the law applied to them," Dys said. "[The city] has really no compelling justification for doing so, and they're going to be hard-pressed to prove that they are acting in the least restrictive means possible here." Dys said the city still has time to reverse the rates and bring the churches back into the same category as commercial businesses, which is the main goal of this lawsuit. "The city should not be punishing churches here with this increased water rate, especially when imposing what amounts to a tax upon a tax-exempt organization is unlawful in and of itself," he said. "There's time for the city to bring itself back into compliance with the law and allow these churches to do what they do best, and that's care for the community." Despite repeated attempts, Magnolia City Administrator Paul Mendes could not be reached for comment and city council members could not provide comments as of publication May 29. Read more about the lawsuit here. The lawsuit petition is embedded below.