the court ruled in Gonzalez\u2019s favor<\/a>. <\/p>\n\u201cThe real hero in all of this is the Institute for Justice,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cThey are a nonprofit, national law firm that exists to help people that have been treated unjustly. … I was very fortunate to have them represent me because most people don\u2019t have the means to go all the way to the Supreme Court.\u201d <\/p>\n
The City of Castle Hills first announced the settlement during Tuesday\u2019s city council meeting. In the news release, the city believed \u201cthat the claims were unfounded, which is why we are pleased that all individuals named in the case have been dismissed.\u201d <\/p>\n
However, Trevino has remained the city\u2019s mayor before and after the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty funny when they say that \u2018claims are unfounded\u2019 because actions speak louder than words,\u201d Bidwell told KSAT. <\/p>\n
In addition to Gonzalez receiving $500,000, terms of the settlement also include the City of Castle Hills working with the Texas Municipal League to create a statewide training program about First Amendment retaliation. The program is required to include education on Gonzalez\u2019s case (Gonzalez v. Trevino) that the Supreme Court sided with last year. <\/p>\n
Bidwell, Gonzalez\u2019s attorney with the Institute for Justice, also said the training program is optional for staff members of more than 1,000 municipalities statewide to attend \u2014 except for Castle Hills city staff, who are required to complete the program. <\/p>\n
\u201cClearly, a victory for Sylvia Gonzalez \u2014 not just at the Supreme Court \u2014 but vindication now after the Supreme Court told her that she had a right to pursue her claims,” Bidwell said. <\/p>\n
Gonzalez, 79, described her case going to the highest court in the land as an unexpected \u201ctrip of a lifetime.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cSome good things, I guess, did come out of it because it\u2019s going to help other people. In fact, it already has,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cA lot of people have been punished, you know, by cities for speaking up. We have freedom of speech in this country. We should be able to use it. We have rights. It\u2019s all in the Constitution.\u201d <\/p>\n
More recent coverage of this story on KSAT: <\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CASTLE HILLS, Texas \u2013 Former Castle Hills councilwoman Sylvia Gonzalez and the city have agreed to a six-figure…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[698,5757,815,82,84,83,5759,5758],"class_list":["post-5580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-bexar-county","tag-castle-hills","tag-courts","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-supreme-court","tag-sylvia-gonzalez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}