The Amish community in Minnesota is pushing back amid claims of unfair government policies that purportedly fail to offer religious accommodations — and even reportedly led to one Amish man’s arrest.
First Liberty attorney Ryan Gardner said his firm is representing two Amish congregations in Mille Lacs County, Minnesota, arguing the county itself has “essentially criminalized being Amish.”
“As you might know, the Amish community lives by a pretty strict set of religious principles, and many of those involve not being involved in technology,” Gardner said. “And kind of keeping to themselves … they want to be able to live according to their religious beliefs, and a lot of what those beliefs require, frankly … to be set apart from modern society.”
According to First Liberty, problems began for these congregations during COVID-19, when county officials reportedly implemented a new permitting system for building structures and homes.
“It went from a paper form to an electronic form,” Gardner said. “As you might imagine, the Amish don’t really use electronic forms or the internet, so this was a significant problem, and they had no alternative for a long time.”
With no other option for simply getting clearance to build homes, he said “a lot of the people in these congregations just proceeded to build anyways because they didn’t have a choice.”
Gardner said Mille Lacs County did eventually change the policy to make a paper option available, but added there is an additional $50 fee for requesting permitting on paper.
“Pretty much the only people who are actually using that are the Amish, and so now they’re having to pay a special fee just to even start the permitting process,” the lawyer said. “And once they get in, there are more problems because they’re trying to impose all kinds of modern requirements that are just inconsistent with the Amish way of life.”
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Gardner said officials have been so hard on the Amish that they even put one man in jail “for the crime of building and living in his home.”
“This particular individual had been living in his home for something like five years and then, suddenly, he’s criminally cited for it, and he goes to court, and he’s convicted,” the lawyer said. “And he is … immediately taken to jail.”
Gardner said it is “ludicrous” and “extreme” to prosecute someone for such a “petty” offense, and added that such a reaction is rare. He added that the Amish had purportedly tried to go to the county to work the issue out but were “met with hostility.”
“Here’s the kicker in all of this,” he continued, “Built into the very ordinance that the county is enforcing here is a provision that gives the county discretion to give exemptions to these requirements to anybody that it wants.”
First Liberty sent a letter to the county recently demanding they stop enforcement actions against the Amish, especially considering warrants that are currently out for others. They’re also looking for an exemption that would settle the issue once and for all, noting that, from his perspective, the Amish build insanely safe structures.
Mille Lacs County told CBN News that lawyers cannot comment on ongoing cases.
