Parole Condition Barring Church Attendance Is Enjoined

In Manning v. Powers, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 213749 (CD CA, Dec. 13, 2017), a California federal district court granted a preliminary injunction banning the government from enforcing two parole conditions imposed on Sherman Manning, a Baptist minister who had served 25 years in prison for sexual assaults on teenage boys.  One of the challenged conditions prohibited Manning from entering places where children congregate.  Authorities had interpreted that to prohibit him from entering any church.  In invalidating that broad prohibition, the court said in part:To withstand constitutional scrutiny, a prohibition that is not neutral or generally applicable must advance