Matt Sepik

A City's Church attorney says the First Amendment does not protect actions that violate the sanctity of a sanctuary.

Tom Lemon, formerly of CNN, pleaded not guilty to violating the First Amendment rights of worshipers at City's church.

Nakima Levy Armstrong, a black civil rights attorney and Christian minister, entered the same plea along with three other activists.

She says she'll continue to speak out against what she calls the church's hypocrisy.

A church attorney said last month that the First Amendment does not protect, quote, coordinated actions to violate the sanctity of a sanctuary.

For NPR News, I'm Matt Sepik in St.

Paul.

Don Lemon, formerly of CNN, and Minnesota journalist Georgia Fort are accused, along with seven activists, of conspiring to violate the civil rights of worshipers.

The Justice Department charged them under a law that it historically used against the Ku Klux Klan.

Joe Thompson, who's on Lemon's defense team, previously led the prosecution of social service program fraud in Minnesota.

He and several others quit after the Justice Department pressured prosecutors to investigate the widow of Renee Macklin Good after an ICE agent killed Good in January.

Former fraud prosecutor Matt Ebert entered private practice last year.

He's part of Fort's defense team.

For NPR News, I'm Matt Sepik in Minneapolis.

Don Lemon, formerly of CNN, and Minnesota journalist Georgia Fort are accused, along with seven activists, of conspiring to violate the civil rights of worshipers.

The Justice Department charged them under a law that it historically used against the Ku Klux Klan.

Joe Thompson, who's on Lemon's defense team, previously led the prosecution of social service program fraud in Minnesota.

He and several others quit after the Justice Department pressured prosecutors to investigate the widow of Renee Macklin Goode,

after an ICE agent killed Good in January.

Former fraud prosecutor Matt Ebert entered private practice last year.