A federal judge has dismissed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit brought by the Trump Justice Department against pro-Palestinian activists who opposed a New Jersey auction of land in Gaza and the West Bank, partly finding the government’s legal logic — hinging on a law created to protect abortion providers — sought to “demonize” protesters exercising the First Amendment.

In a 31-page opinion, New Jersey Federal Court Judge Katharine Hayden said the DOJ had not laid the groundwork to accuse the auction’s protesters of interfering with religious worship through force or threat of force in violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, the complaint’s sole count.

“A ‘threat of force’ must be a constitutionally unprotected true threat: a serious expression, assessed in context, of an intent to commit unlawful violence against a particular person or group,” the judge wrote.

“Political hyperbole does not qualify.”

Reached for comment on Friday, a lawyer for Tova Fry, one of the defendants, welcomed the judge’s ruling.

“This was such an overwhelming victory for our clients,” Emma Vasta-Kuby said.

“(Fry) wants people to know that the DOJ can’t use this to intimidate and to silence people on Palestine the way that they have tried. Victories like this are important to highlight because they are a response to such extreme government overreach.”

The DOJ has 30 days to file an amended complaint if it decides not to abandon the case. Reached for comment, agency spokesperson Kiersten Pels said, “The Department is reviewing the court’s order and evaluating next steps.”

Passed in 1994 after a spate of bombings targeting reproductive health clinics and the murders of doctors working in them, the FACE Act includes a lesser-known subsection against blocking access to houses of worship, which the DOJ’s civil rights division had never invoked before the New Jersey case.

The Center for Reproductive Rights has accused Trump’s DOJ in a separate lawsuit of selectively enforcing the bipartisan law historically used to protect women’s health providers. Days after starting his second term, the president pardoned 23 people convicted of violating the law in relation to blocking access to reproductive health clinics.

The government’s civil complaint had accused six demonstrators and various organizations, including American Muslims for Palestine-New Jersey and the Party for Socialism and Liberation New Jersey, of violating the subsection by using violence and intimidation to disrupt a “religious event centered on the Jewish obligation to live in the land of Israel” through a cease-and-desist letter and a protest outside the synagogue where the auction was held. The lawsuit sought tens of thousands of dollars in penalties and damages, among other forms of relief.

The November 2024 real estate fair — whose promo advertised “magnificent Jerusalem projects,” “deals with no interest,” “special discounted pricing” and a “Ruach,” or spiritual, event — was initially slated to take place at the West Orange home of Moshe Glick, a dentist and the head of Israel365, a nonprofit.

The event was relocated to a nearby synagogue after Fry hand-delivered Glick a letter on Nov. 3, 2024, threatening legal action for the auction of land recognized under U.S. and international law as occupied Palestinian territories, which was signed by dozens of lawyers and legal organizations.

Fry was captured taking a photo of Glick’s house by the latter’s Ring camera after delivering the letter, which the DOJ alleged was an effort to dox Glick to facilitate intimidation or harm.

On the day of the event, Nov. 13, Fry and dozens of demonstrators turned up outside the synagogue, Congregation Ohr Torah, for a protest that devolved into chaos. Felony assault charges were filed against Glick and one of the auction’s attendees, David Silberberg, 65, who allegedly pepper-sprayed one of the pro-Palestinian protesters sued by the government, Altaf Sharif, and scuffled down a hill with him after Sharif blew a horn in Glick’s face, court papers detail. Former N.J. Gov. Phil Murphy pardoned Glick of the state charges before leaving office in January.

Hayden wrote in her opinion that, “while colorfully set forth,” the government’s version of events did not support the claim that Sharif, in his role in the scuffle, aimed to disrupt any religious observance taking place in the synagogue.

“Sharif’s conduct toward Glick prompted Silberberg’s response toward Sharif; and the confrontation between Sharif and Silberberg culminated in their tumbling down the hill and further pummeling — which, notwithstanding the allegations in the government’s complaint about who the bad guys were, resulted in state charges against Glick and Silberberg,” Hayden wrote in her Wednesday decision.

The judge found that applying the FACE Act to the government’s central allegations “would mean every push, shove, brawl or forceful conduct occurring during a protest like the one alleged here automatically becomes a FACE Act violation.”

“It would demonize protestors who exercise their own First Amendment rights as being part of a mob — which this complaint does,” the judge added.

The DOJ’s complaint said that when Glick initially planned the event at his house, he set aside a room for “communal prayer and study,” a religious event he was intimidated into relocating. Hayden said the government’s theory required the prayer space to be “a place of religious worship” under the FACE Act, before noting, “On this complaint, it is not.”

To bolster its allegations that Fry’s letter could be perceived as menacing when viewed in the context of antisemitic attacks committed in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel, the DOJ cited a 2002 case brought by Planned Parenthood against anti-abortion activists who made “Wanted” posters of physicians resembling flyers that preceded the murders of abortion providers in the 1990s.

Hayden said the government missed the point, having failed to allege that Fry did anything nefarious with the photo of Glick’s house resembling the actions of the anti-abortion poster makers or that she published it at all.

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