"This is not a case where new activity brushed up against a pre-existing ordinance but where an ordinance was passed to deal with a longstanding religious practice," the court said.

"... the County declined in September 2009 to regulate various other sources of road damage besides steel wheels. Rather, it chose to prohibit only a particular source of harm to the roads that had religious origin," the court said.

Although there was evidence presented of damage done to county roads, "the county engineer admitted that various factors lead to road deterioration and he could not quantify the impact of steel wheels on the county's normal schedule for road repair or resurfacing it," the court said.

"Given the lack of evidence of the degree to which the steel lugs harm the county's roads, the undisputed fact that other events cause road damage and the undisputed fact that the county had tolerated steel lugs for many years before 2009, it is difficult to see that an outright ban on those lugs is necessary to serve a compelling state interest."

The court pointed to Howard County's agreement to accept financial deposits from its Mennonite population to cover road damage as an example of a lesser restriction.