Steel Wheels As A Religious Belief

Des Moines Register:

A Mitchell County ordinance banning steel cleats on highway-traveling tractors is constitutionally invalid because it unnecessarily prohibits members of a Mennonite group from properly practicing their faith, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled this morning.

Justices struck down the 2009 ordinance in a 29-page decision involving Matthew Zimmerman, who was given a $50 ticket for driving a steel-cleated Massey Ferguson tractor in February 2010.

Mitchell County first imposed the ordinance in September 2009 after county officials noticed significant damage to roads paved with a new process as part of a $9 million resurfacing project.

Zimmerman, a member of the Old Order Groffdale Conference Mennonite Church, argued on appeal that the ordinance impinged on the free exercise of his religion. A fellow church member testified in court that members could be barred from the church if they failed to follow rules requiring use of the steel cleats – a requirement intended to ban the use of tractors for pleasure purposes.

Wow, going cruising on your steel wheeled tractor? That sounds like an activity I would have to be drinking beforehand to participate in. Amish and Mennonite rules make Catholic rules seem reasonably based.