In early February, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order calling for the creation of a task force to “eradicate anti-Christian bias” and “protect the religious freedoms of Americans” by ending “the anti-Christian weaponization of government.” It fits the narrative that religious conservatives, including Christian nationalists, have sought to create about how radical leftists are allegedly trying to take away people’s religious freedom.
Such assertions come with a notable lack of evidence. But, in fact, there are instances where the government wrongfully intrudes on religious freedom, and ordinary citizens must stand up and fight back. Two such cases have recently had pivotal developments.
One concerns an El Paso shelter where a group of people, mostly Christians, are being persecuted by the state of Texas for following their religious mandate to provide aid and comfort to people in need. The other is about an individual in Wisconsin who was repeatedly accosted and twice handcuffed for spreading the good news of Jesus Christ at a public market, as his faith compels him to do.
In both of these cases, law enforcement officials decided that a particular kind of religious expression is actually a violation of law. And, in both, the courts and the Constitution, most particularly the First Amendment, are being invoked to defend the principles of religious freedom against these attacks. Here are the two stories:
Riding Roughshod Over Rights
Annunciation House in El Paso is a nonprofit founded nearly fifty years ago by local Catholics. It provides shelter, food, and clothing to migrants, most of whom are in the country legally, having been processed and released by U.S. immigration officials. It sometimes also shelters immigrants who do not have legal permission to be here.
On February 7, 2024, agents from the office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton showed up at Annunciation House, demanding it turn over documents regarding its work with migrants. When the shelter filed a lawsuit to block this action, Paxton filed a retaliatory counterclaim seeking the revocation of the shelter’s corporate charter and its right to operate as a Texas nonprofit.
Here come the courts, possibly to the rescue. State district court Judge Francisco Dominguez rejected Paxton’s efforts to revoke the shelter’s charter, saying these “run roughshod over Annunciation House, without regard to due process or fair play.” Paxton appealed, and that decision is now under review by the Texas Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments in the case in January.
An attorney for Paxton’s office declared that Annunciation House “is not immunized because of its religion.” But the shelter’s attorney, Amy Warr, countered that it has not engaged in any illegal conduct and is not concealing anyone. Some of the undocumented individuals it houses were brought there by federal authorities because they are needed as witnesses in criminal cases. The government knows where they are, and can pick them up with a warrant at any time.
Annunciation House, in its filing with the supreme court, says the shelter and its volunteers “animate biblical teachings centering service to the poor as a fundamental component of religious faith.” Moreover, Texas passed a Religious Freedom Restoration Act, similar to laws on the books in more than two dozen other states. It bars the government from interfering with “a person’s free exercise of religion” unless there is a “compelling governmental interest” addressed using the “least restrictive means.”
Conservative commentator David French argued in a recent column for The New York Times that Texas is “attacking the shelter’s religious rights” in violation of this law. “The very idea that a state official would take it upon himself to judge a faith-based institution’s religiosity and authenticity is deeply problematic,” he wrote, adding that such behavior “raises profound establishment clause concerns.”
Under the law’s “least restrictive” standard, if any part of the shelter’s operation is deemed illegal, the state should be addressing just that part. Instead, Paxton and his supporters—including America First Legal Foundation, a group founded by Trump adviser Stephen Miller—want to shut the whole place down. “Apparently,” mused French, “only the most punitive measures can accomplish MAGA’s goals.”
Finally, French mined the irony of Ken Paxton passing judgment on people of religious bent. While proclaiming to be an evangelical, he’s cheated on his wife, was impeached by the GOP-led Texas House of Representatives (but acquitted by the state senate), and is currently under federal investigation for public corruption (unless Trump makes the charges go away).
It’s not clear which way the Texas Supreme Court will rule. There’s no doubt how it should.
Shout It from the Sidewalk
In 2021, “Bible-believing Christian” and local business owner Doug Schoenwalder began preaching and distributing gospel tracts on public sidewalks at the Saturday Farmers Market in Green Bay, Wisconsin. When the cops asked him to stop, he refused and was issued a citation for disorderly conduct. Schoenwalder defended himself against this charge and was found not guilty.
At the start of its 2022 season, the market instituted a new rule barring “political and religious proclamations or protests” within the event boundaries. On four occasions that summer, Schoenwalder was prevented from preaching by Green Bay police, who twice placed him in handcuffs. One time, instead of religious literature, he handed out $2 bills to passersby, saying this gift was “like the free grace of Jesus.” He was ordered to leave and, when he refused, was handcuffed, “frog-marched” off the premises, and cited for unlawful conduct at a public event. After the fourth occasion, police informed him that if he so much as showed up at the market, he would be arrested.
Schoenwalder lawyered up and, on October 3, 2022, his attorneys sent a letter to the city of Green Bay stating that the citations against Schoenwalder “lacked any lawful basis” and violated his First Amendment rights. Two days later, City Attorney Joanne Bungert responded on behalf of the city, stating that all charges against Schoenwalder would be dropped. City officials vowed not to further restrict his evangelizing at the market.
Ten months later, on August 2, 2023, Schoenwalder’s lawyers filed a lawsuit against the Green Bay police officers who had allegedly deprived him of his rights. “Though the First Amendment enshrines religious expression as ‘too precious’ to be suppressed,” the complaint states, the police officers “targeted Mr. Schoenwalder with a content-based rule specifically crafted to suppress his speech, and used that rule to repeatedly arrest him, silence him, humiliate him, and prevent him from evangelizing.”
The case was slated to go to jury trial this May, but a settlement was reached last December. The city of Green Bay agreed to pay Schoenwalder $77,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees. Under a consent judgment signed by U.S. District Court Judge William Griesbach, the city was also ordered to provide additional First Amendment training to all of its officers. The claims against the six named officers were dismissed. The city and its police department issued a joint statement saying the officers “acted in good faith and in accordance with” the guidance they received but admitting, essentially, that they were wrong.
So that was that. There was no leftist cabal plotting to end religious freedom, just some people who screwed up and were taken to task for it.
Surprisingly, this case drew little attention, outside of an excellent article by Vivian Barrett of the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Schoenwalder told her he went back to preaching at the market right away and has had mostly positive experiences. Now, he says, if someone complains about his preaching, the cops “have been telling the people that’s their right, to preach the gospel. If you wanted to preach the gospel, you could do the same thing. If you wanted to proclaim something else from the other street corner, that’s your right as well.”
Amen to that.