Court date postponed again for Smithtown church ticketed for Christmas tree sales

The court date for a church ticketed for selling Christmas trees last year on the property's front lawn, against Village of the Branch's code, was postponed again until late July.

In December, the village issued a summons to St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church for holding the Christmas tree fundraiser on its East Main Street property in Smithtown. Officials said it was against village law to hold such an event in the historic district, where the front of the church property lies. The fundraiser included sales of trees, plants, grave blankets and holiday items.

The court date was rescheduled from Jan. 26 to Feb. 23 and then to April 27, village officials have said. Officials on Tuesday confirmed the new court date of July 27.

John Carro, a village trustee and the liaison between the village court and its attorneys, said the church's lawyers couldn't make the April date and cited other conflicts in May and June. 

Erik Snipas, an attorney with Greenberg Traurig LLP, a Garden City law firm that represents the church, also confirmed the new court date. "Everything is still the same right now. I'm hoping we can resolve this," he said in an interview. 

Ryan Gardner, a lawyer for the First Liberty Institute in Plano, Texas, a nonprofit working on the church's case, said in a statement Tuesday: "We are still evaluating how to respond to the citation but we remain gravely concerned about the unconstitutional application of the Village's laws against the church and are evaluating all the church's legal options."

A letter dated Dec. 18, 2025, from Greenberg Traurig lawyers defended the fundraiser. The lawyers said the church could use the property for religious purposes, which are protected by the First and 14th amendments of the U.S. Constitution.

The church had run the fundraiser for the past 25 years without issue, officials from the First Liberty Institute have said. However, village officials said there were no prior issues because the trees were sold in the back of the church, in a residential area outside of the historic district.

In an interview, Mayor Mark Delaney said: "We don't even want to fine them ... we just want to get it resolved."

"They did something they knew they shouldn't do, so we just have to issue a citation," Delaney said. "They didn't lose any revenue; they didn't not sell any trees because of us. So we just put it through the court. Let the court handle it and move on."

The summons followed a lengthy legal dispute between St. Patrick's and the village over the church's bid to hold a fall family festival on its grounds. In 2024, village officials denied the initial request because the village's code barred carnivals, circuses, mechanical rides and amusement park activities in the historic district. The church sued, claiming its First Amendment rights were violated. Last May, the village approved a revised application for the festival, which took place in October.