California bill aims to stiffen penalties for agitators disrupting church services

By Ian M. Giatti, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, February 24, 2026

California lawmakers are advancing legislation to bolster protections for churches and other houses of worship amid a rise in reported disruptions and intimidation at religious services across the state and nationwide.

Senate Bill 1070, introduced by state Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, in collaboration with The American Council, would update the state’s penal code, which currently classifies intentional disturbances of religious worship as a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in county jail and/or a $1,000 fine.

The proposed bill would create a "wobbler" offense, giving prosecutors discretion to charge violations as either a misdemeanor or a felony based on severity, coordination or repetition. If passed, SB 1070 would expand California Penal Code Section 302 and impose felony penalties, including fines of up to $5,000 and 16 months in county jail.

Under current state law, disturbing a religious meeting by using profanity, misbehavior or unreasonable noise is a misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of up to a $1,000 fine and/or a year in county jail.

SB 1070 also proposes community service requirements, including 50 to 80 hours as an alternative, and 120 to 160 hours for someone with a prior conviction under the existing state statute.

Supporters of SB 1070, including groups like the California Family Council, argue such incidents demonstrate the need for graduated penalties to deter deliberate interference while preserving free speech rights outside sacred spaces. 

“Churches are not political rally venues or protest stages. They are sacred spaces where families gather to worship God in peace,” California Family Council Vice President Greg Burt said in a media statement. “When agitators intentionally invade or obstruct services, they are not exercising free speech. They are trampling on the religious liberty of others. California must send a clear message that worship services will be protected.”

The bill — still in the early phases of the legislative process — follows a slate of high-profile church disruptions since January, including at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, a Southern Baptist congregation where protesters stormed a worship service to oppose one of the church's pastors who also serves as a local ICE official.

Former CNN anchor Don Lemon and eight others were later charged with conspiracy against religious freedom at a place of worship and injuring, intimidating, and interfering with the exercise of the right of religious freedom at a place of worship.

In addition to the Cities Church riot, there have been several documented incidents in California, including at The Mission Church in Carlsbad, where agitators were captured on video blocking entrances, using high-decibel sirens, shouting hostile slogans, and intimidating attendees.

Pastor JC Cooper, assistant pastor at The Mission Church in Carlsbad, testified before the Religious Liberty Commission meeting earlier this month about repeated disruptions at his congregation's interfaith services, most recently at a planned gathering with Jewish visitors at a pro-Israel church in California.

Cooper described how agitators posed as attendees and repeatedly interrupted the service with what he called hateful language, accusations of genocide, and calls to "free Palestine from the river to the sea." He recounted how one agitator resisted removal, physically slamming into him and others near the stairs.

“When we began to guide this particular agitator out of the sanctuary, she forcefully resisted, slammed her body into me and others, and we almost fell down our balcony stairs,” Cooper told the commission. “While the tension grew inside our sanctuary, a mob was amassing outside of our front entrance doors. They screamed through bullhorns, blaring sirens right outside the church, shouting chants like ‘Mission Church, you can't hide, we charge you with genocide.’”

Cooper said the agitators returned on Easter Sunday, again disrupting services with chants, graphic signs, and noise that forced children's activities indoors and caused distress among attendees, including first-time visitors who left.

He told the panel that the disruptions left his family and his church shaken. “I speak to you not only as a pastor, but also as a husband and as a father to four children, whose wife and children have been subjected to hate and discrimination in our own house of worship,” he said.