This afternoon the United States District Court for the District of Columbia issued a preliminary injunction protecting our client Kimmara Sumrall, a prominent Zionist activist assaulted for wearing an Israeli flag by a member of the antisemitic hate group CODEPINK. Describing this “extraordinary remedy granted sparingly,” the court found that Ms. Sumrall was likely to succeed on the merits of her lawsuit, noting that: “The Star of David—emblazoned upon the Israeli flag—symbolizes the Jewish race…targeting the Star of David is as racially motivated as [using] the highly offensive racial slur, [the n-word].”
Ms. Sumrall’s lawsuit utilizes a virtually forgotten provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, passed just after the Civil War to eliminate all incidents of racial violence. The provision reads: “All persons within the jurisdiction of the United States shall have the same right to…the full and equal benefit of all laws…for the security of persons and property.” The Complaint pleads that the assaillant deprived Ms. Sumrall of her rights under several relevant D.C. laws. The Supreme Court has long held Jews are considered a race for purposes of civil rights law.
As far as we know, this is the first instance in the post October 7 landscape in which a Jewish person has used this provision to sue someone on the basis of antisemitic violence. The relevant provision has been hiding in plain sight all along, and we expect the floodgates to now open for others alleging antisemitic violence, which as clarified by today’s ruling encompasses attacks on Jews for supporting Israel.
) xeets and supported Meatball Ron.
