A federal judge has allowed most of a Carlsbad church group’s lawsuit against pro-Palestinian protesters to proceed, finding that the plaintiffs sufficiently alleged disruptions and blocked access at religious gatherings. The ruling does not establish that the allegations are true, and the judge declined to bar defendants from future protests.
The Christian & Jewish Alliance sued eight named defendants and 40 unnamed defendants under the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE Act. The law also protects religious worship: the Justice Department describes it as prohibiting force, threats of force and physical obstruction used to intentionally injure, intimidate or interfere with a person exercising the First Amendment right to religious freedom. The case is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California as Christian and Jewish Alliance Inc. et al. v. Brunner et al., case number 3:25-cv-02992, according to PACER Monitor.
What the lawsuit alleges
The case concerns three events. The alliance alleges that protesters disrupted a March 19, 2025 gathering at Mission Church in Carlsbad, where about 400 people attended an event featuring former Israeli lawmaker Einat Wilf. According to Courthouse News, plaintiffs say demonstrators entered using false names, shouted during Wilf’s speech, resisted removal and gathered near the entrance with bullhorns, creating a bottleneck. Defendants argued that they did not protest a worship-based portion of the event.
The alliance also alleges that protesters returned during an Easter service the following month and demonstrated again on Sept. 7, 2025, at the Legacy International Center. In the latter incident, plaintiffs say, demonstrators used bullhorns and signs in the parking lot and sometimes struck passing vehicles with their hands. These are allegations described in the reporting, not findings that the conduct occurred as claimed.
The ruling’s limits
Judge Andrew G. Schopler found the complaint adequately alleged that demonstrators blocked entrances and disrupted gatherings, and ruled that the Legacy International Center qualified as a place of worship under the statute. He also found that defendants could have foreseen that their actions during a Wednesday worship event would interfere with worship, Courthouse News reported.
But the judge denied the alliance’s request for a preliminary injunction that would have restricted some defendants from demonstrating again. He also did not decide the defendants’ anti-SLAPP motion, which challenges the plaintiffs’ trespass claims under California law. That motion remains pending.
A separate case under the same law
The Carlsbad lawsuit is one example of FACE Act claims involving protests at religious sites, but the available comparison does not establish a broader trend or determine the merits of this case. In a separate matter, the Justice Department said its complaint concerning a November 2024 protest at a synagogue in West Orange, New Jersey, alleged interference with a religious ceremony honoring a deceased rabbi. That was a government allegation in a different case, not a finding about the Carlsbad events, according to the Justice Department.
