Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison sparked controversy after claiming that protesters had a right to disrupt a church service, comments he made during a podcast appearance with Don Lemon. His remarks came only a day after demonstrators stormed Cities Church in St. Paul on Sunday to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations, interrupting worship and ultimately forcing congregants to leave the service.
The protest is fundamental to American society; this country started in a protest. It’s freedom of expression; people have a right to lift up their voices and make their peace. None of us are immune from the voice of the public. Quite honestly, I think that you got the First Amendment, freedom of religion and the freedom of First Amendment and freedom of expression. I think it’s just something you gotta live with in a society like this.
“This administration is real tender about things when it comes to their own interest,” Ellison went on. “But they don’t care about the same things when the things don’t lie in their favor. So they’re getting tender about a church service now.”
“They’re arresting people in clinics, schools, churches, anywhere they choose to do it,” he said. “They don’t really care about sacred and sensitive places unless it works in their favor.”
BREAKING - Minnesota AG Keith Ellison says yesterday’s occupation of a Minneapolis church was “free speech.”
— Right Angle News Network (@Rightanglenews) January 19, 2026
“None of us are immune to the voice of the public.”
You heard him. We can now protest in Somali mosques for stealing our money.pic.twitter.com/b8okVyA7zE
However, Ellison is simply wrong.
The 1994 FACE Act states: “Whoever by force or threat of force or by physical obstruction, intentionally injures, intimidates or interferes with or attempts to injure intimidate, or interfere with any person lawfully exercising or seeking to exercise the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship” could be prosecuted under the law.
Similarly, the Ku Klux Klan Act prohibits conspiracies to deprive individuals of equal protection or privileges under federal law, including First Amendment rights to free exercise of religion
Don Lemon, who has been accused of inciting the riot, is now expected to face arrest under the Ku Klux Klan Act, while a formal investigation is set to be opened into the storming of the church itself.