Can Protesters Legally Enter Church Buildings with Their Protests?

It seems impossible, but it really happened. Protesters stormed into a church building in Minneapolis on Sunday with chants and shouting. In doing so, they broke numerous federal laws, and the Department of Justice is preparing to press charges. Amy Ortez at The Blaze reported the following: 

[Department of Justice Assistant Attorney General Harmeet] Dhillon joined Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck on “The Glenn Beck Program” on Monday morning to address the incident, in which radicals disrupted a Christian church in the middle of a service.

“We don’t want to prejudge, but I think it is fair to say that I saw multiple federal criminal incidents yesterday, and there will be charges,” she told Beck.

Dhillon explained that as soon as she learned about the situation at Cities Church, she immediately activated prosecutors and sent FBI agents to investigate to determine whether the left-wing radicals had violated the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act or committed any related criminal offenses, including potential conspiracy charges and material support.

“It’s only a question of when we can get a judge to sign off on arrest warrants and exactly what the charges would be,” Dhillon stated, noting that the federal judges have to be in Minnesota. “This isn’t Texas, and we aren’t getting exactly rapid-fire support for charges there on the pace we would love.”

Dhillon criticized local leaders for failing to enforce the state’s laws by refusing to arrest any of the protesters.

“There could have been arrests yesterday if Keith Ellison, the attorney general of Minnesota, enforced his own laws, and Mary Moriarty, the district attorney of Hennepin County, enforced her own laws,” she remarked….

Dhillon explained to Beck that the federal government “has to jump through some additional hurdles.”

Beck asked Dhillon whether former CNN journalist Don Lemon violated any laws by following the protesters into the church. Dhillon responded that she would reserve comment on that situation but proposed a hypothetical involving “a podcaster, once a news anchor.”

A privately owned house of worship is not a public forum for protest in the U.S., she stated, adding that charges would likely be imposed in stages.

“We will not let this happen to another church in the United States. It is un-American, unacceptable, and there is a zero-tolerance policy for it at this DOJ,” Dhillon concluded.