NEW YORK (AP) - A federal judge issued a temporary order Wednesday that stops police from removing homeless people from sidewalks outside a church on a posh stretch of Fifth Avenue.
U.S. District Judge Lawrence McKenna's order stands until the issue can be debated in 10 days.
The Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church filed the lawsuit, saying the city was threatening to arrest 35 to 40 homeless people who sleep each night on the sidewalk outside the church.
The judge said it was clear to him that allowing the homeless to sleep outside the church "does come within the church's ministry." He said stopping the church from opening its 5-foot portion of a 16-foot-wide sidewalk to the homeless would violate the freedom to exercise religion.
City lawyer Daniel Connolly said he was disappointed.
"The church continues to operate the world's worst homeless shelter," he said. "That can't be the best we can do."
