In New Covenant Church, Inc. v. Futch, (SD GA, February 5, 2021), a Georgia federal district court dismissed on qualified immunity, as well as other, grounds a dispute described by the court as follows:
This case arises from two feuding family factions which both lay claim to a small church in Brunswick, Georgia, one faction’s exclusion of the other from the church for a period of time, and several Brunswick police officers’ role in that exclusion....
Plaintiffs allege that Defendants [police officers] ... violated Plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights to free exercise of religion ... by: allowing nonmembers of New Covenant to seize and lock it down for ten weeks; threatening to arrest New Covenant members who entered the property; preventing New Covenant members from worshipping; and permitting the Armstrong sisters and others to steal New Covenant’s property. ...
The court found that the officers did not violate a clearly established constitutional right, saying in part:
Defendants ... did not “regulate religious beliefs,” but instead “impose[d] restrictions affecting religious conduct” by allowing the church to be locked up.... The second threshold test is also satisfied; the facts show that Defendants’ actions were not “aimed at impeding religion,” but were instead aimed at maintaining the peace while the parties settled a bitterly contested property dispute.
The court also dismissed due process, 4th Amendment and false imprisonment claims.
