NYCLU Sues Nassau County Over Unlawful No-Speech Buffer Zone Policy

NASSAU COUNTY, NY – Today, on behalf of two Long Islanders whose speech supporting immigrants’ rights has been stifled, the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) filed a lawsuit against Nassau County, County Executive Bruce Blakeman, and the Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder challenging Nassau’s law prohibiting constitutionally protected speech and protest within 35 and 100 feet of houses of worship, respectively. The lawsuit argues that the laws violate the First Amendment and Due Process, and seeks to declare them unlawful and enjoin their enforcement. This is the first challenge of so-called “buffer zones” outside of houses of worship in New York, which are under consideration in Albany right now.

“When I learned that I could be jailed for distributing a New York Catholic Bishops’ Statement to churchgoers because of Nassau’s buffer zone law, I felt my voice being silenced and my freedoms chipped away,” said Claudia Borecky, a plaintiff in the case, who organizes protests and leafleting throughout Nassau County. “As a Christian, an American, and an activist, I can’t stay silent and ignore policies that leave millions of children hungry, violate the Constitution, or dehumanize our immigrant neighbors. Our freedom of speech and right to assemble exist for a reason, and if we lose these rights, everything else falls with it. We must stand up and fight back. I hope fellow Christians pause, look inward, and ask themselves with honesty and compassion: What would Jesus do?”

“Nassau’s Buffer Law is an illegal, unnecessary, and sweeping restriction on First Amendment speech and activity that must be struck down,” said JP Perry, Senior Staff Attorney at the NYCLU. “New York law already protects worshippers and their safe access to worship, but here there is no record of any Nassau resident facing intimidation, harassment, or violence outside of a place of worship in Nassau County that justifies such an extreme prohibition. It’s clear that the purpose of this policy is to silence protected speech, deny residents their expressive rights to the sidewalks and streets, and to give Nassau police cover to conduct arbitrary and biased arrests. With this lawsuit, we’re putting lawmakers across the state on notice that unjustified and unnecessary buffer zones are illegal, and we will prove that in court.”

“Freedom of speech and expression are fundamental. When you don’t have that, you don’t have freedom,” said Mariateresa Thiery, another plaintiff in the case. “Without the First Amendment, you cannot ensure all the other freedoms. The fact that I cannot speak in my own community is terrifying. Protecting freedom of speech in this country is urgent.”

Today’s lawsuit comes on the heels of the New York City Council passing a bill aimed at limiting protest outside houses of worship, as well as Governor Hochul and other state lawmakers’ growing calls to prohibit protests outside of houses of worship and reproductive healthcare facilities as a way to clamp down on speech and protest. It also comes as the federal government launches increasingly aggressive attacks on protest, free speech, and dissent across the nation, including the deployment of thousands of federal troops into U.S. cities following anti-ICE protests; threats of violence against anyone who dissents; the nationwide crackdown on protest; and the murders of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

“Here in Nassau County, so many of us engage in protest, organize for our rights, and fight for what we believe in. It’s in our DNA,” said Susan Gottehrer, Director of the NYCLU’s Nassau County Office. “But Blakeman’s illegal, overarching ban on protest outside of Nassau’s houses of worship has acted as a blunt instrument on our ability to speak out. At a moment when the federal government is targeting, arresting, and even murdering ordinary citizens for peaceful protest, we must do everything we can to defend the First Amendment and reject Blakeman’s authoritarian attempts to squash our speech.”

New York has robust, long-standing laws that already protect people leaving and entering houses of worship or educational facilities. In fact, section 240.70-71 of the state’s Penal Code criminalizes intentionally interfering with another person’s exercise of religion at a house of worship, imposing special penalties on those who physically obstruct someone else’s religious practice. And the rest of New York’s Penal Code already protects every New Yorker from harassment, menacing, assault, or battery wherever they are, including when entering or leaving a house of worship or an educational facility.

NYCLU counsel on this case includes JP Perry, Elizabeth Gyori, Molly Biklen, paralegal Zawareen Zakaria and legal fellows Anya Weinstock and Eman Naga.

For case materials, see here: https://www.nyclu.org/court-cases/borecky-v-nassau-county