## Facts

- Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, located in Manhattan, permitted homeless individuals to sleep overnight on parts of its exterior property as part of a religious ministry to “service-resistant” homeless persons.
- In February 1999, the church designated two sleeping areas: (1) recessed, elevated landings at the tops of staircases to entrances; and (2) a five-foot strip of church property along the southern wall contiguous to the public sidewalk.
- The church limited access to 8:00 p.m.–7:00 a.m., required that individuals not lie down before 9:00 p.m., and imposed written conduct and cleanliness rules.
- For more than two years, the City did not interfere; in late 2001, the City began dispersing sleepers at night and threatened arrest.
- The City asserted the church was operating an unlicensed shelter and creating a public nuisance.
- The church and several homeless individuals sought injunctive relief, alleging violations of the Free Exercise Clause and related constitutional rights.

## Issues

1. Whether allowing homeless individuals to sleep overnight on designated church property by invitation and under church rules constitutes religious exercise protected by the Free Exercise Clause.
2. Whether the City’s dispersal of sleepers from the church’s recessed steps was justified by neutral, generally applicable enforcement (including shelter-licensing and nuisance rationales) sufficient to burden that religious exercise.
3. Whether the district court properly granted preliminary injunctive relief for the recessed steps and landings but not for the strip of property contiguous to the public sidewalk.

## Decision

- The Second Circuit affirmed the preliminary injunction preventing the City from dispersing homeless individuals from the church’s recessed, elevated steps and landings.
- The court held the church showed a likelihood of success on its Free Exercise claim as to those areas and that the City had not shown an adequate basis, at this stage, to override the religious practice.
- The court did not expand preliminary injunctive relief to the sidewalk-adjacent strip of church property, leaving intact the district court’s narrower order focused on the recessed steps.

## Legal Principles

- The Free Exercise Clause protects sincere religiously motivated conduct beyond formal worship services; courts generally do not evaluate the “centrality” of a practice to a faith when sincerity is shown.
- Government actions that substantially burden religious exercise are suspect when applied through ad hoc, targeted enforcement rather than through demonstrably neutral and generally applicable rules applied evenhandedly.
- Speculative or generalized claims of nuisance, health, or safety concerns are insufficient, at the preliminary-injunction stage, to justify burdening a prima facie Free Exercise claim without supporting evidence tied to the specific conduct.
- Loss of First Amendment freedoms constitutes irreparable harm for purposes of preliminary injunctive relief.
- In balancing equities for preliminary relief, courts may narrowly tailor an injunction to preserve the status quo and account for the differing regulatory concerns presented by private, recessed property versus areas contiguous with the public sidewalk.

## Conclusion

The Second Circuit held that the church’s supervised, overnight sleeping ministry on its recessed steps and landings was protected religious exercise and affirmed a preliminary injunction barring City dispersal there, while leaving unprotected at that stage a sidewalk-adjacent strip where the City’s regulatory interests were stronger.


Fifth Ave. Presbyterian Church v. City of New York, 293 F.3d 570 (2d Cir. 2002)