The U.S. Department of Justice announced on Monday that it filed a “statement of interest” in a civil suit brought by a Los Angeles-area Jewish man alleging that anti-Israel protesters violated his civil rights.
The move gives government backing to the claims of the plaintiff that CodePink, the Palestinian Youth Movement and other groups violated his First Amendment right to attend Adas Torah Synagogue in the Pico Robertson neighborhood in Los Angeles when the groups organized a violent anti-Israel protest outside the synagogue in June.
“Members of our Jewish community should not have to think about their safety when they go to worship,” said Joseph McNally, acting United States attorney. “We make clear today that federal law prohibits people from obstructing access to places of worship.”
The Justice Department statement added that the filing is part of its efforts to “promote freedom of religious worship and combat antisemitism in all its forms.”
“Every person should be free to worship and attend religious services without fear of violence, threats, or intimidation,” said Mac Warner, deputy assistant attorney general. “The Civil Rights Division is working vigorously to combat antisemitism using all of the tools at our disposal.”
Statements of interest indicate that the U.S. federal government believes it has a stake in some aspect of how the courts interpret federal law.
The Biden administration, for example, filed statements of interest in 2024 in lawsuits against the states of Florida and Tennessee in favor of transgender state employees who alleged that those states discriminated against them under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The Trump administration in turn has signaled that combating antisemitism will be one of its civil rights priorities.
In July, Ronen Helmann filed suit against CodePink and other anti-Israel protesters for organizing a June 23 protest targeting an event at Adas Torah Synagogue about making aliyah to Israel.
Helmann claims that unidentified, masked individuals affiliated with the protest attempted to intimidate him into not entering the synagogue by shouting “slaughter the Jews” and “Hitler didn’t finish the job” at him, along with other antisemitic insults.
The anti-Israel protesters also violently attacked other synagogue-goers, breaking the nose of one man and using bear spray on a local woman trying to attend the event.
According to Helmann, those actions violated the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which prohibits intimidating a person exercising their religion, and the Ku Klux Klan Act, which bars masked individuals from violating the civil rights of U.S. citizens.
Helmann is seeking injunctive relief against the groups to prevent them from organizing similar protests in the future as well as compensatory and punitive damages.
