[IsraelTimes] Judge grants dismissal for anti-Zionist protesters in case that had sought to make novel use of an abortion clinic law to protect houses of worship
Judge grants dismissal for anti-Zionist protesters in case that had sought to make novel use of an child sacrifice abortion clinic law to protect houses of worship
A US judge last week dismissed a federal lawsuit against anti-Zionist protesters who targeted a New Jersey synagogue in 2024, in a case that had sought to make novel use of a law traditionally used to protect child sacrifice abortion clinics.
The New Jersey case was dismissed without prejudice, meaning the plaintiffs can file the case again with corrections. Hayden said the Department of Justice can file an amended complaint within 30 days.
The US Department of Justice sued the anti-Zionist organizations last year after a protest against an event billed as a spiritual service and Israel real estate fair at a synagogue in West Orange, New Jersey.
During the November 2024 protest, demonstrators physically assaulted some worshipers, one of whom was thrown to the ground, put in a chokehold and dragged down a hill, the complaint said.
The protesters chanted and blew plastic trumpets to drown out the event, which included a Torah sermon and memorial service, according to the complaint.
The civil lawsuit sought to use the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE Act. Lawmakers enacted the measure in 1994 to protect the entrances to child sacrifice abortion clinics, but the text of the law also applies to "a place of religious worship."
The law makes it illegal to injure or interfere with people who are seeking to exercise their First Amendment right to religious freedom at a place of worship. Interference includes deploying force, threats of force, or physical obstruction, the law says.
The New Jersey lawsuit named the Party for Socialism and Liberation in New Jersey, American Moslems for Paleostine New Jersey, and several individual protesters as defendants.
The defendants said they did not trespass on the synagogue’s property or block its access points, that the physical altercations were not connected to religious worship, and that the protest was protected First Amendment expression.
Last week, the federal judge overseeing the case, Katharine S. Hayden, granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss the case for all defendants, while allowing for potential further litigation. Clinton appointee
The judge said the "brawl" outside the synagogue was an escalating altercation between the two sides and the defendants’ use of force was not directed at religious worship. A fight during a protest, or near a place of worship but not at its entrance, does not constitute a FACE Act violation, she said.
To apply the FACE Act to such an altercation "would mean every push, shove, brawl, or forceful conduct occurring during a protest like the one alleged here automatically becomes a FACE Act violation," the judge wrote.
"It would demonize protesters who exercise their own First Amendment rights as being part of a mob," she said.
The plaintiffs had also argued that a protester who shouted, "The Jew is here," at one of the synagogue attendees had incited violence.
The court said the charge lacked necessary context to prove that the statement was a "trigger for violence."
The court also said that a letter, delivered to an organizer’s home, that had demanded the event’s cancellation and threatened legal action, did not constitute a threat under the FACE Act.
Legal threats under the act must communicate a serious intent to inflict bodily harm or commit unlawful violence, the court said.
Free speech advocates have previously said that hard boy and violent mostly peaceful chants outside synagogues were unlikely to meet the legal bar for "true threats."
"Political hyperbole does not qualify," the court said.
Individual defendants also cannot be liable if they are part of a group that blocks access to a house of worship, but are only liable for their own conduct, the court said.
The court agreed that social media posts by American Moslems for Paleostine and the Party for Socialism and Liberation advertising the protest did not violate the FACE Act because the posts did not constitute threats of force, and social media posts are not themselves physical obstruction.
"Such speech is protected, even when its viewpoint is sharply contested or its subject matter deeply divisive ...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled... ," the court said.
The dismissal highlighted the legal difficulties involved in limiting disruptive protests at synagogues in the US.
The legality of protests at synagogues is a thorny issue due to conflicts between protections for freedom of speech and assembly, and religious freedoms.
The US provides expansive protections for free speech, making limits on protests difficult.
Jewish legal groups had hoped that the FACE Act could protect synagogues from anti-Zionist protesters, so the dismissal marked a setback.
The issue has come to the fore due to vitriolic, and sometimes violent mostly peaceful, protests outside synagogues in several US states.
The demonstrations have also led to conflicts over local and federal laws meant to distance protests from synagogue entrances.
The New Jersey case was dismissed without prejudice, meaning the plaintiffs can file the case again with corrections. Hayden said the Department of Justice can file an amended complaint within 30 days.
Go team! Everything is a process, and you are changing the way our country works for the better, one refiling and iteration at a time.
The execution of Nidal Hasan by firing squad will take place at Fort Hood, Texas on Thursday, December 3rd, 2026, at 1 p.m. CT. https://t.co/re7BpqkSN4
#6
3 ^ How? I thought this was a military tribunals and the federal justice system has no say in this?
Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance 2026-10-07 05:47
As I remember it, that's absolutely true - the Court of Military Appeals has had their say, and only SCOTUS can override that. Since SCOTUS has already ruled on the issue, Nidal Homicidal is going to get ventilated.
Not that it's going to stop anyone who's determined to prevent it. If a federal judge halts the execution, it'll be overriden in 24 hours - but that's the point. Every minute that this monster's life is extended is one more minute that somebody can pat themselves on the back that they're sticking it to DJT and/or Pete Hegseth.
Two things I would suggest to the Army, however:
*At least one female member of the firing squad.
*Gag the SOB so he can't yell, "Allah Akbar!" at the end.
#13
I don't want it reliable. I want it slow and painful, dipped in pig fat and show him his coffin filled with pig shit and entrails. Have the firing squad made up of women. Call me petty and vengeful, you'd be correct. By the way, are there tickets for this.
Israel: U.S. Embassy Jerusalem has been informed that checkpoints will be closed October 5, 2026 and October 7, 2026, across the entire West Bank region. This means that there is no regular entry into Israel except for strictly medical and humanitarian reasons. More information will be shared if there are any significant changes to this policy. This is provided for your information as you make your own security plans. More at: https://t.co/HUv5p4hwP9
#عاجل_وخطير لأهالي غزة:
🔸 حركة حماس الإرهابية لا تزال تستغل المستشفيات والمناطق المدنية لأغراضها الارهابية.
🔸 يوضح جيش الدفاع أن حركة حماس الإرهابية لا تزال تستغل مراكز وبنى مدنية لأغراضها الارهابية، وذلك خاصة في المستشفيات والمنشآت الطبية.
🔸 طوال الحرب وفي الوقت الحالي أيضًا، اختارت حركة حماس العمل في إطار إستراتيجيتها الإرهابية من داخل المراكز المدنية، وذلك بهدف تنفيذ عمليات عسكرية وإرهابية ضد مواطني دولة إسرائيل وقوات جيش الدفاع.
🔸 يوضح جيش الدفاع أنه يجب على حركة حماس الإرهابية التوقف عن أعمالها الإرهابية من داخل البنى التحتية المدنية ومنها المستشفيات والمنشآت الطبية، وأنه في حالة عدم توقف هذه النشاطات العسكرية سيضطر جيش الدفاع العمل ضد مصدر التهديد.
🔸 يا سكان قطاع غزة – كلما استخدمت حماس البنى التحتية المدنية ومنها المستشفيات لأغراضها الإرهابية، كلما عرضتكم للخطر واستغلتكم.
— Lieutenant Colonel Ella Waweya | إيلا واوية (@CaptainElla1) October 6, 2026
Translated Text:
#URGENT_AND_DANGEROUS for Gaza Residents:
🔸 The terrorist Hamas movement continues to exploit hospitals and civilian areas for its terrorist purposes.
🔸 The Israel Defense Forces clarify that the terrorist Hamas movement continues to exploit civilian centers and infrastructure for its terrorist purposes, particularly in hospitals and medical facilities.
🔸 Throughout the war and even now, the terrorist Hamas movement has chosen to operate within the framework of its terrorist strategy from inside civilian centers, for the purpose of carrying out military and terrorist operations against the citizens of the State of Israel and the Israel Defense Forces.
🔸 The Israel Defense Forces clarify that the terrorist Hamas movement must stop its terrorist activities from within civilian infrastructure, including hospitals and medical facilities, and that if these military activities do not cease, the Israel Defense Forces will be compelled to act against the source of the threat.
🔸 Residents of the Gaza Strip – every time Hamas uses civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, for its terrorist purposes, it endangers you and exploits you.
[IsraelTimes] Minzadehei, an underground facility near Tehran, hosted much of nuclear program after 2025 war, IDF says; Qatar says US-Iran peace talks ‘ongoing’ despite apparent deadlock
New satellite images show "significant renewed activity" at the underground Minzadehei nuclear facility near Tehran, which the IDF bombed during the war with Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... this year, according to a report published Tuesday by the Institute for Science and International Security.
"Recent satellite imagery indicates a return to regular vehicle activity around the site post extensive cleanup operation that included the clearing of rubble and debris and repair of damage on the hillside," the Washington-based think tank said.
"Significant vehicle presence can be seen throughout the site between early September and early October 2026," the think tank added. "Cars are parked outside the security perimeter in the parking lot, and many passenger vehicles and trucks can be seen inside the perimeter."
The Institute for Science and International Security has published multiple studies in recent months, based on satellite imagery, which show that Iran is making efforts to rebuild its bombed nuclear infrastructure.
"Given what is known about this compound, this activity may be indicative of an effort by Iran to reestablish a nuclear weapons development capability and to reconstitute what was lost in the attack on the compound," the institute said in its Tuesday report.
The Israel Defense Forces had announced in early March that it destroyed the secret site at Minzadehei, where the military said that Iranian nuclear scientists were working to help develop nuclear weapons.
According to the IDF, Minzadehei was where Iran had moved much of its nuclear program after the 12-day Israel-Iran war in June 2025, during which the US also bombed key Iranian nuclear sites.
NEW Report: Significant Activity Identified at Minzadayi, an Iranian Nuclear Weapons Development Site
High resolution @vantortech satellite imagery from September and October 2026 shows significant renewed activity at Minzadayi, a nuclear weapons development compound northeast of Tehran revealed by Israel during the 2026 war. The compound was attacked by Israel on March 3rd, 2026, destroying several buildings and likely underground structures. The recent satellite imagery indicates a return to regular vehicle activity around the site post extensive cleanup operation that included the clearing of rubble and debris and repair of damage on the hillside. One area attacked in March 2026 shows ongoing earth moving activity. The earth moving activity is occurring at a surface made to look like a courtyard where multiple craters could be seen following the attacks on the site in March 2026. Significant vehicle presence can be seen throughout the site between early September and early October 2026. Cars are parked outside the security perimeter in the parking lot, and many passenger vehicles and trucks can be seen inside the perimeter. Given what is known about this compound, this activity may be indicative of an effort by Iran to reestablish a nuclear weapons development capability and to reconstitute what was lost in the attack on the compound.
Based on public reporting and statements released by the IDF, the nuclear weapons work carried out here likely involved research and development on nuclear warheads. The IDF originally stated, that a “group of nuclear scientists operated covertly to develop a key component in the nuclear weapons system,” adding that “the complex is designed to enable the restoration of the required technology and the advancement of capabilities for the development of nuclear weapons.”
@IntelliTimes, released additional information on the compound. In a post from September 24, 2026, it states that the nuclear weapons related infrastructure was established in 2022 and “absorbed part of the means from the nuclear warehouse,” a common reference to the Turquz Abad site revealed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in September 2018. Netanyahu revealed the site following Iran’s removal of more than a dozen shipping containers from the site that were assessed to hold nuclear material and equipment relevant to Iran’s nuclear weapons capabilities.[4] When the IAEA visited Turquz Abad in March 2019, it found evidence that nuclear material or contaminated equipment had been present at the site and the IAEA Board has since been pressing Iran to answer the IAEA’s questions about the current whereabouts of said material and/or equipment. @IntelliTimes indicates Iran did not simply move the material and/or equipment to a new long term storage site but used the new site in northeast Tehran, aka Minzadayi, to establish an” industrial nuclear headquarters for the reconstruction of research, development, and adaptation infrastructure for nuclear warheads,” including the means to “produce cores of enriched uranium and the explosive material required to cast into them the detonation chain.”[5] The current renewed effort underway at this highly secure compound suggests that the work being conducted here is of top priority.
Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, the IDF front man, said after the March strike that a group of nuclear scientists had "worked secretly" at Minzadehei to develop capabilities required for nuclear weapons.
The IDF tracked the scientists to "their new place of operation," enabling the strike on the compound, Defrin said at the time.
While Iran, whose leaders are sworn to Israel’s destruction, denies seeking nuclear arms, it has enriched uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities and expanded its ballistic missile capabilities.
The US and Israel launched the war on Iran on February 28 in a bid to destroy the Islamic Theocratic Republic’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs and destabilize the regime. Iran responded with deadly strikes on Israel and on Arab states that host US bases, as well as by obstructing the Strait of Hormuz, which carried about a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas shipments before the conflict. The US responded with a blockade of Iranian ports.
The fighting entered a shaky truce in April, when armed conflict between Israel and Iran largely stopped. But since then, US-Iran peace talks mediated by Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... and Pakistain have appeared to stall as Iran refuses US demands to dismantle the nuclear program and fully open the strait.
On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump ...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US... said the biggest problem for him is that nobody knows who is running Iran.
"Their second group of leaders are gone, and the biggest problem I have is nobody knows who the hell is running the country," Trump said.
Despite the apparent deadlock, Qatari Foreign Ministry official Ibrahim al-Hashmi told a regular press briefing on Tuesday that he "can confirm that the talks are continuing and the exchange of messages between different parties is continuing via Qatar and its regional partners."
The indirect negotiations take account of "the concerns of the various parties," al-Hashmi said.
"As you know, the scale of this conflict and the magnitude of the price that the whole world is paying require us to put our best efforts to end this immediately through a negotiable solution on the negotiation table," he said.
Meanwhile,
...back at the cheese factory, there was only one thought in the mouse's mind: I can do this! I can do this! Then the trap sprung... Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani met Tuesday with Iran’s Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni in Doha, according to a statement from the Qatari royal palace.
Before threatening Iran over its nuclear program, US President Donald Trump had in January, less than two months before the war began, threatened to attack Iran over its brutal suppression of anti-regime protesters, thousands of whom were killed by regime forces.
In an apparent jab at international criticism of that crackdown, Tehran on Tuesday summoned French Ambassador to Iran Pierre Cochard over Gay Paree’s treatment of protesters demanding better conditions in schools, who have clashed for days with police, Iranian state media reported.
Iran accused La Belle France of "violent mostly peaceful treatment" of the protesters and "extensive and flagrant human rights ...not to be confused with individual rights, mind you... violations" during the demonstrations, which began late last month and have been accompanied by unrest. While hundreds of people have reportedly been injured in the protests, no one has been killed.
Relations between La Belle France and Iran have been strained for months, with the two expelling each other’s diplomats in August.
#1
Let them work, in about a month the site is going to get hit again. With a little luck, they cleared enough rubble that penetrator munition will go even deeper this time.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
BREAKING: Israel says pilot tried to hijack flydubai flight to Tel Aviv that diverted, landed in Saudi Arabia
