Judge Dismisses DOJ's FACE Act Suit Against Synagogue Protesters; Government May Amend Within 30 Days
NEWARK, Oct. 3 — A U.S. judge has dismissed a lawsuit the Trump administration brought last year against pro-Palestinian organizations and protesters under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, a law traditionally used against people blocking access to abortion clinics, according to Reuters. U.S. District Judge Katharine Hayden in New Jersey said the government's complaint did not adequately plead violations of the statute.
The dismissal is without prejudice: the government can file an amended complaint within 30 days. The Justice Department sued in September 2025 over a November 2024 protest against an event at a New Jersey synagogue, billed by organizers as a spiritual service and real estate fair promoting property in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The suit alleged the protest escalated into violence, with demonstrators assaulting some worshippers and using chants and vuvuzelas to disrupt the event — allegations that remain unproven. The FACE Act, passed in 1994, prohibits force and physical obstruction against people at reproductive health centers or houses of worship.
Harmeet Dhillon, head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, has said the case appeared to be the first time the law was used to allege interference with religious worship; the department has separately curtailed FACE Act use in abortion-related cases and the president has pardoned several people prosecuted under it, restrictions Dhillon said do not apply to houses-of-worship cases. The judge's ground was the sufficiency of the pleading, not a final ruling on the statute's reach; whether the government amends within 30 days will decide if the case continues.
Source: Reuters, Oct. 3.
Photo: Supreme Court — blmurch / CC BY 2.0 (via Openverse)
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：新泽西州纽瓦克 Martin Luther King Building & U.S. Courthouse（本案由新泽西联邦地区法院审理）。摄影：ajay_suresh，CC BY 4.0，来源：Wikimedia Commons
