ST. PAUL, Minn. (Michigan News Source) – The invasion of Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota on January 18 wasn’t just disruptive. According to newly released court documents and firsthand accounts, it was chaos.

What unfolded inside the church went far beyond shouting slogans or holding signs. Protesters who had gone there to condemn the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) aggressive operations – and specifically to protest the agency’s involvement in the killing of Renée Good and alleged ties between the pastor, David Easterwood, and ICE – flooded the sanctuary, blocked stairways, and trapped congregants near the front of the building, leaving parents unable to reach their own children during Sunday School.

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One protester reportedly screamed at a child, “Do you know your parents are Nazis? They’re going to burn in hell.” Another shouted declarations about damnation while children cried. So much for peaceful protest.

Blocking exits and breaking bones.

Court filings describe roughly 50 members of the congregation effectively stuck as agitators took over the service and made it nearly impossible for people to leave. One woman suffered a broken arm amid the turmoil. Witnesses said children were “weeping,” college students and young women were sobbing, and agitators continued screaming directly into the faces of kids already in tears. This was, for many, viewed as intimidation carried out inside a private house of worship.

Why private property is not a free-speech zone.

On The Steve Gruber Show on Monday, Constitutional attorney and senior partner with Kallman Legal Group in Lansing, David Kallman. dismantled the agitators’ favorite talking point: that what they did was covered under the First Amendment.

Kallman said in the interview, “I’ve litigated First Amendment cases for four decades. And for anybody to argue in a private setting, at a church, at a store, or wherever you’re at, that you have some First Amendment right shows you have no understanding of the First Amendment. Any attorney that says that you might as well stop listening to them. They don’t know what they’re talking about. The First Amendment applies to government action.”

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Kallman also pointed out that what happened at the church is not a one-off, citing statistics produced in the “Hostility Against Churches” report by the Family Research Council published in 2025. In the report, they cite 415 incidents like this around the country in 2024 including acts of vandalism, arson, bomb threats, gun-related incidents, and other crimes.

“That’s over eight incidents a week,” Kallman said adding, “And unless law enforcement start stepping up and doing their job, like in Florida…this is only going to get worse.”