Michigan Town Bans Church From Holding Worship Services: Lawsuit
A Michigan township is facing a federal lawsuit after officials allegedly banned a church from holding worship services, Bible studies, weddings and other religious gatherings inside a building that had been used as a house of worship for nearly 60 years, according to First Liberty Institute.
First Liberty filed the lawsuit in federal court on behalf of The Tarrington Church, accusing Windsor Township of waging what attorneys called a “multi-year campaign” to restrict or prevent the church from engaging in religious activity on its own property.
“The First Amendment and federal law protect the right of churches to operate freely from unreasonable and intrusive government interference,” Ryan Gardner, senior counsel at First Liberty, said on The Todd Starnes Radio Show. “The Township’s repeated efforts to use the petty tools of government prevent this church from participating in its religious activities at a site where Christians have been gathering for decades cannot continue.”
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Don and Kathy Hamilton, along with family members, purchased the abandoned church building in January 2024 with the vision of opening The Tarrington Church, according to First Liberty. The congregation planned to use the building for worship services, Bible studies, weddings, funerals and other religious activities.
But after nonstructural renovations were completed, the township sent the church a cease-and-desist letter, claiming it was operating an illegal event venue in a residential zone. Officials also issued $4,500 in fines over three weddings held on the property — two of them for family and friends, First Liberty said.
“We have a church that is caught in what can only be described as a bureaucratic purgatory,” he told Starnes.
First Liberty says the township later imposed severe restrictions on the church, including limiting worship to Sunday mornings with no more than 60 people, allowing only four to six community events per year, and requiring all events to end by 9 p.m. Attorneys said other churches and secular event facilities are not bound by the same restrictions.
Previously, First Liberty said the township fire chief limited the building’s occupancy to 50 people, even though the building can hold 400, and restricted operating hours to just a few hours per week.
“It’s unthinkable that anyone in the Township of Windsor’s leadership would be so anti-religious that they would oppose a neighborhood church’s constitutionally protected right to freely engage in its religious activities,” Gardner said. “The Constitution and federal law forbid government officials from intimidating and preventing churches from using their property as a place to exercise their religious beliefs.”
First Liberty attorneys said the restrictions have “all but foreclosed any possibility for the Church to function and exist.”
In the lawsuit, attorneys accused the township of applying its ordinances in a “draconian manner” to curtail or prohibit religious activity based on its own judgment of which gatherings are “religious enough” to receive legal protection.
First Liberty is asking the court to stop the township from enforcing the restrictions and allow the church to operate freely.