FLAGLER BEACH, FL – Liberty Counsel filed a reply brief to Florida’s Fifth District Court of Appeal on behalf of Coastal Family Church in its appeal of an unconstitutional lower court order that has banned congregants from gathering for Bible study, prayer, or religious worship on the church’s own property. Since January 2026, an injunction from the Seventh Judicial Circuit Court has kept the church’s Flagler Beach location closed for religious gatherings over a dispute from the church’s property association about alleged parking congestion and a restrictive covenant that unlawfully prohibits “public assembly.” 

The injunction is unconstitutional because it “categorically prohibits assembly,” a right independently protected by the U.S. Constitution making the court order an unlawful “prior restraint” on the church’s First Amendment assembly right, wrote Liberty Counsel.  

By banning the church’s property from being a “place of public assembly,” the injunction does not merely regulate assembly, but also prohibits speech, expression, and religious exercise by forbidding congregants from gathering at all. While the rights of peaceable assembly and speech are “not identical,” they are “inseparable,” and thus the injunction creates an impermissible “First Amendment Free Zone” where no expressive religious activity may occur, noted Liberty Counsel.

Flagler Beach police confirm with Coastal Family Church leaders on Sunday, January 25, 2026, that no in-person worship services are being held in accordance with the injunction.

Since the injunction is a “state action” that imposes a total ban on First Amendment-protected activity, it cannot evade constitutional scrutiny and should be vacated, Liberty Counsel concluded.

In February, the Fifth Circuit temporarily let the church resume services but then denied an emergency motion opting to keep the injunction in place while the case is appealed. Subsequently, the Florida Supreme Court declined to intervene.

While this appeal proceeds in Florida state court, Liberty Counsel has also brought a separate lawsuit in federal court against the state judge who issued the unconstitutional injunction. The lawsuit names the Honorable Sandra Upchurch, in her official capacity as Circuit Judge for the Circuit Court of the Seventh Judicial Circuit for Flagler County, Florida, as the defendant.

In the state court appeal, Liberty Counsel seeks that the injunction be vacated. In the federal lawsuit, Liberty Counsel seeks a temporary restraining order immediately halting the state-court injunction, and follow-on preliminary and permanent injunctions allowing worship services to resume.

The church, located in the Flagler Square strip mall, has been sued by its property association, Flagler Square – JAX, Inc., over alleged parking congestion and a condominium covenant that the association interprets as prohibiting “public assembly.” The church argues that the covenant is ambiguous, selectively enforced, and unlawful under both state and federal law. The association claims the church’s services “would overwhelm available parking at all times” despite Sunday services leaving more than 160 parking spots available. Notably, the condominium declaration also prohibits strip mall units from being used as discount stores, banquet halls, bingo parlors, or other places of public assembly. However, Flagler Square is home to a consignment store, and a Fraternal Order of Police lodge that regularly hosts bingo nights and rents their facility to the public for public assembly. Despite no evidence of parking problems, the Seventh Judicial Circuit Court issued the injunction. Since then, the property management company has used police to ensure the church abided by the injunction and did not hold religious services.

The restrictions on Coastal Family Church are “selective” and “wholly arbitrary” whereby they are “null and void,” wrote Liberty Counsel. 

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “The U.S. Constitution leaves no room for court orders that operate as prior restraints on religious worship. Every additional day that this injunction remains in force deepens the constitutional harm on Coastal Family Church and its congregation. The U.S. Constitution and Florida laws are clear that Coastal Family Church has the right to hold church services on church property and that restrictive covenants cannot ban religious assembly. This injunction must be overturned.”

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