This week the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued an extremely consequential Free Speech decision in Arms of Hope v. City of Mansfield, Texas. No. 4:23-cv-00121, 2026 WL 473041 (N.D. Tex. Feb. 19, 2026). Arms of Hope challenged a Mansfield ordinance which “created a complicated permitting scheme for every [collection bin], regulating their location, placement, size, signage, appearance, and maintenance.” Id. at *1. Specifically, the complaint alleged the ordinance violated the Free Speech and Free Exercise clauses of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (“RLUIPA”). While the opinion declined to apply strict, or exacting, scrutiny to the challenged law, it nevertheless held the provisions of the law governing zoning districts where collection bins could be placed, setback restrictions for collection bins, and location-on-lot restrictions unconstitutional.
The court began the opinion dismissing Arms of Hope’s claim under RLUIPA for lack of standing. Id. at *6. That is the court held Arms of Hope did not possess the type of property interest required by RLUIPA to recognize an injury under the law. The court also held the law was content neutral as to the regulation of collection bins. Id. at *8. The court reasoned, relying on Fifth Circuit precedent, the law does not regulate based on the content of the speech. Rather the law regulated “solicitation in the manner of a donation box, located in prohibited places.” Id. Thus, the court applied intermediate scrutiny.
Under intermediate scrutiny the law must be “narrowly tailored to serve a significant governmental interest and leave open ample alternative channels for communication of the information.” Id. at *9 (internal citation omitted). Here the court found the interest, aesthetics, sufficient. However, the court held the ordinance was not narrowly tailored to this interest.
The Court concluded the ordinance was not narrowly tailored because the City does not consider “clean, well-maintained [collection bins] to be visual blight.” Id. at *10. This is a contrast from other cases where the ordinance considered all collection bins, even if well-kept, to be visual blight. Since the City did not consider well-maintained bins blight, “an outright ban on [collection bins] is not narrowly tailored to achieve the City’s interests.” Id. This is because the laws permitting and maintenance requests alone were sufficient to address the City’s interests in aesthetics and safety. Thus, the provisions related to zoning, setback restrictions and on-lot location were not necessary to serve the City’s goals “particularly, in light of provisions of the Law that more properly focus on the source of the evils the City seeks to eliminate.” Id. at *11 (cleaned up).
This case represents a major deviation in how courts handle challenges to regulations of collection bins. Typically, the court will consider the whole regulatory scheme together. Conversely, the court in Arms of Hope evaluated the individual effect of each provision on the stated government interest. This also shows how a city’s framing of an issue can drastically alter the analysis. Had the City said all collection bins, regardless of how well maintained they are, are visual blight, Arms of Hope would have lost. This also demonstrates how the framing of each issue and each fact are supremely important in First Amendment challenges.
At Dalton & Tomich we regularly represent companies who operator unattended collection bins to challenge municipal laws regulating placement, permitting, and standards of their collection bins. We stand ready to fight for your religious freedom and put our wealth of knowledge and experience on this body of law to work for you.
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Established in 2010, Dalton + Tomich PLC is comprised of religious liberty, land use, denominational trust law, and business law attorneys. Our team are experts in RLUIPA claims and ready to fight for your rights. Learn more about our services at https://www.daltontomich.com/.
