Churches seeking exceptions should tread carefully. When everything becomes a right, the system stops working.
There’s a quiet strategy playing out in the case of Dad’s Place in Bryan, Ohio — and in courtrooms across the country. When regulatory pressure builds, religious organizations don’t just fight on the facts. They pivot to constitutional claims. They don’t just argue that the rule is unfair. They say it’s illegal to apply it to them. They reframe operations as expressions of belief, not choices, and challenge the government to prove its authority.
This can work. It’s working here. The Ohio Sixth District Court of Appeals has sent the case back to the trial court with orders to apply strict scrutiny, the toughest test in constitutional law. The church says it lets people sleep overnight in its sanctuary because of its faith. It doesn’t want to install a sprinkler system. It doesn’t want to stop the overnight ministry. And it doesn’t want to move. So the entire activity gets recast as religious exercise.
That’s the workaround.
But these kinds of workarounds come with a cost. When religious groups reach for legal shields to avoid the hard work of compromise or compliance, they may win a short-term battle — but they put long-term protections at risk.
The more religious exercise is stretched to include sleeping, zoning, land use, employment rules, and public health, the more skeptical courts and legislatures may become. The stronger the claim, the more likely someone will try to poke holes in it. And if enough people cry “religious liberty” where it doesn’t quite fit, courts may start narrowing the category. That’s already happening. Judges are less likely to take religious exemption claims at face value. They want evidence. They want track records. They want to know that the thing being defended is, in fact, religion — not a preference, a program, or a strategy.
In the Dad’s Place case, the church never applied for a change in occupancy. It didn’t appeal its fire code citation. It didn’t install temporary fire suppression or ask for a phased plan. Instead, it went straight to court and said, “You can’t make us stop.” It might work. But even if it does, it sets a fragile precedent. One that depends entirely on subjective definitions of ministry and highly discretionary enforcement.
That’s not sustainable.
When rights rely on framing instead of structure, they break under pressure. The fire code exists for a reason. So do zoning laws and use occupancy limits. These aren’t tools for discrimination. They’re baseline rules to keep people safe. Trying to get around them by redefining operations as worship may succeed in isolated cases. But it erodes confidence in the idea of religious liberty itself. And once that confidence is gone, real violations are harder to defend.
Churches need a better playbook. If an overnight ministry puts people at risk, the question isn’t how to avoid regulation. It’s how to meet the standard while preserving the mission. That might mean raising funds. That might mean redesigning the program. That might mean working with city officials instead of suing them. But using the First Amendment as a way around basic safety rules is a short-term tactic with long-term consequences.
Because when every fight becomes constitutional, the real Constitution starts to shrink.
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AI Disclaimer
This article was generated using verified legal documents and reviewed by editorial staff. It does not constitute legal advice.
Fire Chief Douglas Pool, City of Bryan Fire Department v. Dad’s Place of Bryan, Ohio, et al., Court of Appeals No. WM-24-020, Trial Court No. 24 CI 000100, Decided November 21, 2025
https://lcapps.co.lucas.oh.us/Courts/Appeals/DecisionsPDF/13283.pdf
Legal Disclaimer
This article is not legal advice. For legal guidance, consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction.
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