A three-member panel of federal judges says no free lunch for the homeless in St. Louis until churches register and pay a $50 fee for permits before handing out sandwiches.
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals judges said in a Wednesday ruling that St. Louis has a right to restrict the charitable handouts because of the threat of “illness or disease” to the homeless.
A St. Louis police officer in October 2018 cited Pastor Raymond Redlich and Christopher Ohnimus of the New Life Christian Evangelical Center for violating a city ordinance that regulated the distribution of “potentially hazardous food” such as the bologna sandwiches the pair were passing out along with a bottle of water.
Citing a federal Public Health Service guideline on what constitutes a potential hazard, the city ordinance requires licenses for those offering “sandwiches containing meat, poultry, eggs or fish.”
The city didn’t prosecute the pair for the original violation, but the evangelicals sued, saying the ordinance the city relied on to call the Christian effort a “temporary food establishment” violated their First Amendment rights of free speech and religious free exercise.
The two have continued to pass out free meat-based sandwiches since the 2018 incident, attorney Dave Roland of the Missouri Freedom Center said, but remain aware that the city could ticket them at any time.
Mr. Roland, who represented the two Christians in court, said he’s going to ask for a rehearing of the case by the judicial panel that just ruled, and failing that, by the entire court.
“They believe very strongly in their ministry,” Mr. Roland said in a telephone interview. “And unless and until the court told them, no, they were going to keep doing it.”
He said the pair might shift the suit against St. Louis to state court, because “Missouri has a very strong Religious Freedom Restoration Act and it puts a very heavy burden on the government. Even if a particular religious practice is not necessarily mandated by one’s faith, it is still entitled to protection, and the government still has an extraordinarily large burden to carry if they’re going to overcome the protections for a citizen’s religious practice.”
The Washington Times has contacted the office of St. Louis City Counselor Sheena Hamilton for comment.
• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.
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