Religious Freedom and Protest Law

A wave of Republican-led bills in several states would elevate penalties for disrupting religious services to felonies in response to last year’s anti‑ICE storming of Cities Church in St. Paul and subsequent federal FACE Act arrests and indictments. Oklahoma has already signed a law expanding penalties and creating a buffer zone, while Alabama, South Dakota and Idaho have proposed measures ranging from Class C felonies with up to 10 years in prison to reclassifying disturbances as felonies or explicitly adding churches to disturbing‑the‑peace statutes.