Tort Law vs. the Anti-Israel Protesters

 Normally we wouldn’t wish trial lawyers on our worst enemy. But as anti-Israel demonstrations grow increasingly lawless, the plaintiffs bar could help. Why not hit protesters who break the law and keep Americans from getting to their destination with a tort liability suit for false imprisonment?

On Wednesday anti-Israel protesters blocked access to JFK and LAX airports in New York and Los Angeles, respectively. The laws of New York and California, like most states, recognize the tort. While there is no precedent applying this tort to road-blocking protesters, it fits the offense. The purpose of these demonstrations is to block the road to keep people from getting to the airport—deliberately and against their will.

We wouldn’t say this if we were confident in the authorities’ ability to control unlawful protest. You might think that after the lawlessness and violence that attended both the George Floyd and Jan. 6 Capitol protests, American authorities would have learned the lesson. Yet here we are, with mobs using their opposition to Israel’s war on Hamas to bring chaos to campuses and city streets.

The airport blockade follows efforts in New York to disrupt holiday events such as the lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree and the 

Macy’s

 Thanksgiving Day parade. Police made more than two dozen arrests Wednesday, though it isn’t clear if there will be real consequences. The city is already bracing for New Year’s Eve at Times Square.

Other protesters were doing the same to passengers trying to get to LAX. In a tweet, the LAPD said “protestors threw a police officer to the ground, used construction debris, road signs, tree branches, and blocks of concrete to obstruct Century BLVD while attacking uninvolved passerbys in their vehicles.” The cops said they arrested 36 for rioting, with one booked for battery on a police officer.

That’s only a fraction of disturbances around the country. Demonstrators on the Bay Bridge in San Francisco a month ago delayed the delivery of organs for transplants. Whether it’s disrupting lectures on campus, shutting down traffic in Chicago, or clashing with police at the Democratic National Committee in Washington, the anti-Israel protests show contempt for the rights of fellow citizens.

This is deliberate, and the protesters are well aware when there is the lack of a firm response from law enforcement. An Antifa website that is good at tracking the mentality and strategy of progressive protests includes this report about a protest that shut down an Amazon fulfillment center for two hours in Lacey, Wash.: “Law enforcement didn’t say a word to the demonstrators all day and carried out no arrests.”

In the absence of real criminal penalties, the protesters’ escalating resort to lawlessness calls for some creative class actions. Tort actions would hit the lawbreakers in their pocketbooks, even if district attorneys like New York’s Alvin Bragg won’t prosecute them.

Protesters have the right to call for a cease-fire, denounce Israel for “genocide,” and chant “from the river to the sea” all they want. They can protest within orderly parameters. But it’s long past time American justice made clear that, however right they think their cause, protesters can’t legally prevent their fellow Americans from going about their daily business.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/protesters-israel-hamas-tort-law-false-imprisonment-lawsuit-a03f2996