$10,000 is the maximum civil fine under a bipartisan House bill that would make it a federal crime to knowingly disrupt or impede access to religious services, with a $2,500 entry fine on the first offense and $5,000 on the second. Each step doubles, a 4x run from entry to ceiling across three strikes. Reps. Brad Knott (R-N.C.) and Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) introduced the measure this week. At least four states enacted comparable bans earlier this year, according to the Associated Press.
Penalty structure
| Offense | Civil fine |
|---|---|
| First | $2,500 |
| Second | $5,000 |
| Third | $10,000 |
The bill limits liability to "knowing" disruption. Violations are defined by volume, duration, and impact on attendees, not by the content or viewpoint of the protest, a construction that keeps First Amendment speech protections intact while targeting the disruptive act itself.
How the restricted zone works
The buffer runs 100 feet from any pedestrian or vehicular entryway of a house of worship. The window is fixed by service timing: one hour before a scheduled service begins, one hour after it concludes. Outside those hours, restrictions lapse.
Demonstrations carried out under a federal, state, or local government-issued permit are fully carved out. That exemption separates protected assembly from unexcused interference with worship attendance.
State-level precedent and the Minnesota incident
At least four states moved before Congress did. The AP reported that the state legislation wave followed a Minnesota incident in which demonstrators disrupted a service at a church where a federal immigration official was reportedly a pastor, a fact pattern that raised the issue's national profile.
Knott said many Americans face harassment, assault, or other forms of intimidation when trying to attend services, and tied the right to worship freely to the country's founding. Suozzi said he supports the right to peaceful protest, and specified that attendees of religious services should not be harassed, threatened, intimidated, or targeted for practicing their faith. The legislative text, obtained by Fox News Digital, encodes that boundary: conduct triggers liability; viewpoint does not.