First Amendment freedoms are sacrosanct—especially the right to gather together and worship God.
But over Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend, Minneapolis/St. Paul anti-ICE protestors and their supporters perversely invoked the First Amendment to justify desecrating a house of worship and interfering with others’ First Amendment rights.
While congregants of Cities Church—a Southern Baptist congregation—conducted their weekly worship service, protestors poured into the sanctuary with the express purpose of disrupting and disbanding it because one of the church’s pastors also works for ICE.
The church’s primary pastor called the disruptive actions shameful. And they are.
More than that, though, such actions are illegal under both state and federal law.
Potential Minnesota State Law Violations
While it’s doubtful that St. Paul’s District Attorney or Minnesota’s Attorney General will pursue state charges, they should.
A quick look through Minnesota’s statutes shows that at least three could potentially be applied:
- Minnesota Statute § 609.28, Interfering with Religious Observance, makes it a misdemeanor or gross misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail and/or a $3,000 fine, if someone uses threats, violence, or physically obstructs or disrupts religious services.
- Minnesota Statute § 609.605, Criminal Trespass, makes it a misdemeanor punishable up to 90 days in jail and/or a $1,000 fine if someone enters or remains on private property without consent. This offense can be escalated to a gross misdemeanor in certain circumstances.
- Finally, Minnesota Statute § 609.72, Disorderly Conduct, makes it a misdemeanor to disturb “an assembly or meeting, not unlawful in its character” or to engage in “offensive, obscene, abusive, boisterous, or noisy conduct or in offensive, obscene, or abusive language tending reasonably to arouse alarm, anger, or resentment in others.”
All of these would seem to apply to this situation. But despite the straightforward nature of these charges, none have yet been brought by state or local officials. And sadly, no charges likely will be brought against the protestors.
Potential Federal FACE Act Violation
Instead, Minnesota’s Attorney General, Keith Ellison, has been making the media rounds suggesting that the disruptors—including disgraced former CNN host Don Lemon (who claims he was simply there as a journalist)—did not violate the federal FACE Act.
For those unfamiliar, the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, was originally proposed to protect those entering abortion clinics.
But Congress also included and made it clear that whoever “by force or threat of force or by physical obstruction, intentionally injures, intimidates or interferes with or attempts to injure, intimidate or interfere with any person lawfully exercising or seeking to exercise the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship” has violated the law. The same is true if someone “intentionally damages or destroys the property of a place of religious worship.”
The disruptors’ conduct certainly seems to meet this definition. The U.S. Justice Department is investigating.
Attorney General Pam Bondi has said that “any violations of federal law will be prosecuted” and that if “state leaders refuse to act responsibly to prevent lawlessness, this Department of Justice will remain mobilized to prosecute federal crimes and ensure that the rule of law prevails.”
KKK Act
Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, has made clear that the Justice Department is also investigating whether those involved violated the Ku Klux Klan Act. Congress originally passed this Act in the wake of the Civil War to allow the federal government to make sure all Americans’ civil rights are enforced and respected.
The overwhelming majority of Americans should agree that those who seek to worship God should not be intimidated or harassed while they do so.
And the First Amendment right to assemble and protest, or even a weaponized reading of the freedom of the press, does not provide protection for violating others’ First Amendment rights to freely worship.
Those who disrupted the church service this past weekend must be held accountable and quickly prosecuted.
