New York village threatens church for selling Christmas trees, prompting lawsuit threat

The Grinch came early for St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church on the north shore of Long Island, New York, with its long-running Christmas tree sale banned this year because it already hosted a fundraiser in the past 90 days, according to the church's lawyers. 

First Liberty Institute and Greenberg Traurig sent a legal warning letter to Village of the Branch Mayor Mark Delaney, arguing it's violating the First Amendment because the zoning ordinance the village allegedly invoked "is neither
neutral nor generally applicable" and threatening to strip officials' qualified immunity from personal liability.

The village "threatened to issue citations against the Church for selling Christmas trees along with other plants, grave blankets, and wreathes during the Christmas season," which it has done for more than 25 years without objection from the village, the letter says.

Meanwhile, the village did not require a "special use permit" from Island Fairs LLC to host what the letter calls a "secular Fall Craft Fair" which also sold goods. "Indeed, the Village’s ordinances do not require any for-profit entity to
obtain a SUP before engaging in such fundraising events," the letter says.

The village code also fails to specify what constitutes a "fund-raising activity" requiring a permit, giving village officials "sole discretion" to approve or deny such an activity.

It cannot show it has any compelling interest "in suddenly regulating" what the church sells, "as demonstrated by the fact that it has allowed such sales to proceed uninhibited for over 25 years," the letter says. The timing suggests Mayor Delaney has "personal animosity" toward the church.

The 90-day limit on fundraising activities also "unlawfully and arbitrarily intrud[es] on internal church affairs," to the extent that this interpretation would prohibit passing the collection plate, and the village is also violating the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, the lawyers said.

The church is eligible for damages and attorney's fees and village officials may be held liable for damages in their individual capacities for violating constitutional rights, the letter says.

First Liberty recently received $800,000 in attorney's fees in one New York case and a $950,000 settlement in another, the lawyers emphasize.