First Liberty: Minnesota County Has ‘Essentially Criminalized Being Amish’

By CBN News

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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 that the county itself has "essentially criminalized being Amish."   "As you might know, the Amish community lived 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 system for their permitting system for building new structures and homes. "It went from a paper form

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