Can You Protest Inside or Near a Church? First Amendment Analysis
On Jan. 18, 2026, a group of protesters entered a St. Paul, Minnesota, church, interrupting a Sunday service. The group says one of the church’s pastors also leads a local U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson has neither confirmed nor denied the pastor’s involvement with ICE.
Some protesters were arrested and faced federal charges, including under laws that prohibit threatening or intimidating someone exercising a “right … secured ... by the Constitution or laws of the United States” or “lawfully exercising or seeking to exercise the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship.”
Two independent journalists who recorded the incident, Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, were also arrested. On Jan. 30, Lemon was charged with conspiracy and interfering with worshippers’ First Amendment rights. Both journalists have stated they were at the church as journalists covering the protest and aren’t affiliated with the group that organized the protest.
The incident has raised questions about the boundaries of several First Amendment-protected freedoms.
This article answers those questions and provides some historical context.
Editor’s note: This analysis does not examine the protest at the St. Paul church but instead focuses on answering the general First Amendment questions around protesting inside — and near — houses of worship.
Protesting inside and at houses of worship: First Amendment analysis
First Amendment protections for protests inside or near houses of worship depend on many factors, including where the religious service is taking place.
Protesting inside private houses of worship
Do you have a First Amendment right to protest inside churches and other houses of worship such as synagogues and mosques?
The short answer is no.
Since the First Amendment applies only to governmental actions, religious organizations and houses of worship (which are not part of the government) do not violate the First Amendment when they deny someone the opportunity to speak or protest on their property. In fact, they have their own First Amendment rights to worship and to gather.
Protesting in these private spaces could violate generally applicable state and local laws such as trespassing, disturbing the peace and disorderly conduct, as well as First Amendment-related state laws that provide special protection for houses of worship.
Depending on protesters’ actions inside a church, a federal law called the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act could also factor in. The 1994 law prohibits using or threatening force or physically obstructing or interfering with people seeking or providing reproductive health services, or exercising their faith at a place of religious worship — although it’s rarely been used in the context of religious services, according to Charles Haynes, Freedom Forum senior fellow for religious liberty.
Can journalists enter private houses of worship to cover events?
Journalists may enter private houses of worship to cover events if they’ve received permission from the religious group.
If a journalist enters private property, such as a private house of worship, to gather news without permission, they are violating the law and may be arrested, typically by state or local authorities.
Federal charges may apply if the trespass occurs on federal land or violates a federal law like the FACE Act, which requires proof of force or threats intended to injure, intimidate or interfere with religious exercise; mere observation and reporting are unlikely to meet this standard.
If a prosecutor proves the elements of a crime, the journalist cannot raise the First Amendment as a defense; journalists have no special immunity from generally applicable laws.
Protesting at religious services in public spaces
Though most religious services are held inside private spaces, some services take place in public spaces, such as a public park or building.
For example, a private church could rent a public park’s amphitheater for a service. Or a student religious group may hold worship services in a public university campus lecture hall.
What does this mean for protesters’ rights at these services?
Speech and assembly rights in these public places often depend on how courts view that public space for First Amendment purposes.
Courts have identified three types of public spaces:
- Traditional public forums: where gatherings and other expressive activities usually take place, such as a large common area like the National Mall in Washington, D.C., or many sidewalks on public property.
- Limited (or designated) public forums: where the government has opened the area to public use in a limited way, like the plaza in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building or certain parts of a city park or outdoor areas of a college campus.
- Nonpublic forums: where protest is traditionally not allowed, like inside government buildings or an airport or directly outside a building where access and exit would be cut off.
First Amendment rights are strongest in traditional and limited (or designated) public forums and weakest in nonpublic forums.
Once the government lets a group use a defined public space (like a room or all or a designated part of a park) for religious purposes, that space is most likely to be considered a “nonpublic forum” because it has been opened only for a very specific purpose.
In a nonpublic forum, the speech and assembly rights of outside groups like protesters are subject to greater restrictions, as long as those restrictions are reasonable and not based on the groups' viewpoints, including their opinions, beliefs or ideology.
This means that a religious group granted the use of public space by the government can limit speakers and topics to those related to the church service. In fact, the First Amendment protects the church from being forced to include outside speakers not affiliated with the religious group.
But if the religious group does allow nonmembers to join, it cannot then decide who does or doesn’t get in based on the person's viewpoint. Once inside, the church can require people to speak only on topics related to the service, but again, it cannot prevent someone from speaking or remove them simply because of that person’s views.
People who protest or disrupt such services by entering the public area designated for the religious group’s use could be removed and charged with violations of laws like those against trespassing and others identified above.
Protesting outside religious services
What about protesting outside a church or other location where worship is occurring?
That’s sometimes allowed, but there are important caveats.
Public sidewalks generally receive maximum First Amendment protection as traditional or limited (designated) public forums, though the areas right at a building’s entrance and exit may see less protection for First Amendment-related activities because their purpose is more functional: The point is to let people get in and out of the building.
So, protesting is generally allowed on a sidewalk near a church, as long as people can still get by, and direct entry and exit to the building itself is not blocked.
Protesters have more rights if the services are in a traditional public forum, like a public park or amphitheater. They generally have strong First Amendment protection to protest nearby, as long as they do not physically enter the area designated for the exclusive use of the worshippers.
Further restrictions on when, where and how protests can occur outside religious services
Even when worship occurs in areas where First Amendment free speech and assembly protections are strong, protesters may be restricted in when, where and how they may exercise these rights.
Such regulations are called “time, place and manner” restrictions.
An example of a reasonable restriction would be a prohibition on protests near a house of worship during services if the noise from the protest exceeds a certain decibel level. To put it plainly: The government may restrict protests in a way that ensures the service is not disrupted by loud protesting outside. The protesters can still protest, as long as the service can continue.
Any time the government restricts First Amendment freedoms, these restrictions must be applied equally and not favor or disfavor certain viewpoints, messages or beliefs.
This means the government can’t pick favorites among religious groups when deciding who gets permits for use of city parks, and it can’t restrict protesters because of their views or opinions.
History of church protests in the U.S.
Protests inside houses of worship have a long history in the United States, according to Haynes, Freedom Forum’s religious liberty expert.
Haynes notes some examples of protests in churches and houses of worship, some of which resulted in arrests, although he clarifies arrests during such demonstrations have been “relatively rare”:
- 1950s-1960s, Civil Rights Movement: Activists went to segregated churches to challenge the churches’ exclusion of Black worshipers. Haynes said protesters “were sometimes met with arrests, typically under trespass or breach-of-peace laws.”
- 1960s-1970s, Vietnam War era: On some college campuses, students protested services in school-run chapels to voice opposition to the war.
- 1989: The AIDS activist group ACT UP disrupted Catholic Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, resulting in more than 100 arrests.
- 2000s: On multiple occasions, people who opposed the anti-LGBTQ+ positions of the Westboro Baptist Church disrupted the group’s services, which resulted in arrests for violating various public order laws.
The bottom line on protests at churches and houses of worship
The First Amendment protects freedom of religion and the right to speak at and assemble for protests. But these rights are not unlimited, and some restrictions apply, including when freedoms overlap.
The First Amendment rights of speech and assembly do not protect entering private property to disrupt a religious service where others are exercising their right to freedom of religion.
And even outside a physical church building on public property, protesters’ rights could be limited depending on when, where and how the protest takes place.
Scott A. Leadingham is a staff writer at Freedom Forum. He can be reached at [email protected].
This article was compiled with contributions from Freedom Forum experts, including Vice President and First Amendment Expert Kevin Goldberg and First Amendment Specialist Alex Morey.
Correction, Jan. 30, 2026: This article previously incorrectly stated the location of the church in Minnesota. The correct location is St. Paul.
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