Pro-Israel Christians, Jews use law loathed by pro-life activists to stop anti-Israel disruptions

Texas pro-life activists took a page from California environmental activists to functionally ban abortion in The Lone Star State, by outsourcing civil litigation to private citizens so that abortion clinics couldn't sue public officials to block SB 8. Red states repeated the environmental trick this year through bills targeting abortion pills as contaminants of drinking water. 

Now the bane of pro-life activists for over 30 years is being fashioned to protect Christian and Jewish congregations, whose faith compels them to support Israel, from anti-Israel activists in the San Diego area.

First Liberty Institute filed a Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act lawsuit against "hostile agitators affiliated with Code Pink" on behalf of the Christian and Jewish Alliance, The Mission Church of Carlsbad and Jewish worshipper Ruth Mastron, alleging they carried out an illegal "campaign of disruption and harassment" against three worship services.

"We just want to be able to gather safely, pray, and worship together without fearing for our lives," Mastron said, alleging "a masked person holding a vulgar sign jumped onto the hood of our car, screaming and banging on the windshield" at a Sept. 7 service.

The federal FACE Act makes it unlawful for any person to use "force, the threat of force, or physical obstruction to intentionally injure or intimidate a person because he or she is lawfully exercising the right of religious freedom at a place of worship" or "obtaining or providing reproductive health services," whether abortion or anti-abortion counseling.

The legislation has rarely been used to protect churches or pro-life pregnancy centers but has been used overwhelmingly to prosecute pro-life activists and impose steep criminal penalties far beyond what a state or local trespassing charge would carry. 

In the first week of his second term, President Trump granted pardons to 23 liberal and conservative pro-life activists facing years in prison under FACE Act convictions for peaceful sit-ins at abortion clinics. A 24th activist didn't seek a pardon so he could challenge the law as null and void under Dobbs, the Supreme Court ruling that eliminated federal abortion rights.

The Heritage Foundation has called it "an ideological weapon designed to suppress ordinary pro-life activity and expression," and the GOP-controlled House Judiciary Committee approved a FACE Act repeal bill this summer that hasn't gone anywhere since.

Asked why it didn't seek terrorism-related charges for politically motivated threats of violence against worshippers and physical assault of Mastron, First Liberty senior counsel Jeremy Dys told Just the News that "Congress gave us the solution" to deal with agitators who "exchange peace with intimidation and antisemitism" under the guise of peaceful protest.

"It would make it more difficult to hold violent agitators and intimidating antisemites accountable under the law" if Congress repealed the FACE Act, he said.

Screaming 'obscenities and slurs at the children,' showing them dead babies

Known to an older generation for its antiwar disruptions during George W. Bush's presidency, Code Pink has shown its staying power over two decades, reportedly turning President Trump against the Secret Service by getting dangerously close to him at a restaurant this month.

It is formally committed to nonviolence, meaning its activists will "use no violence, verbal or physical, toward any person," show "openness and respect toward all people we encounter in our actions," and neither "destroy any property" nor carry weapons. "We will exercise personal and collective responsibility to ensure all participants adhere to these commitments."

That's not the narrative told in First Liberty's lawsuit against Daniel Brunner, Aimee Magda Werth, Kristina Turner-Brown, Patrick Hartley, Sasha Spite Miller, Jacob Pagaduan, Esmat “Essie” Baradar, Jonathan Provance, Maya Karalius and 40 unknown defendants. 

Just the News asked Code Pink, which is not itself named, whether it considers any of the defendants to be affiliates or to legitimately organize in its name, and if so, what responsibility it has over them. The docket shows no defendant has a listed lawyer as of Friday.

"We do not comment on any ongoing or pending litigation" but will reach out if Code Pink issues a statement, media relations manager Melissa Garriga told Just the News.

Various configurations of the defendants illegally interfered with the plaintiffs' events March 19, Easter Sunday and Sept. 7, 2025, the last event of which drew the most named defendants, the suit says, claiming Brunner and Hartley participated in all three. Several photos purportedly identify various defendants in the act of protest or arrest.

It specifies that Brunner, Miller and Werth hold themselves out publicly as Code Pink leaders in the San Diego area, "which has a pattern of organizing disruptive protests against Jews and their supporters," and that Brunner also led a disruptive protest Oct. 20, 2024, against the alliance and church and against a different church Aug. 25, 2025.

The defendants' actions have "created a culture of anxiety and fear within both the Church and the Alliance, causing both to cancel religious events and expend additional resources to ensure the safety of their members," the suit says, with the church losing members and the alliance struggling to "secure safe locations to host interfaith worship and prayer events."

Mastron suffers "severe stress and lingering anxiety" whenever she's in "public in her own community" because of ongoing threats by Code Pink affiliates, whose stated "war" against the "abomination" of Zionism considers her a legitimate target, the suit says.

The March event at the church featured former Israeli Knesset member Einat Wilf, with about half the audience of 400 composed of Jewish community members, who gathered to "worship together and learn about religious persecution in Israel," First Liberty claims. 

"Posing as guests" under fake names, "disruptors infiltrated the sanctuary, yelling epithets until they were escorted out," while others "lined up inches outside the door, calling church members 'Nazis' and yelling 'Mission Church, you can’t hide! We charge you with genocide!'" the firm said. (This event includes 20 unnamed defendants, the most of any.)

Those inside the sanctuary disrupted the event "in staggered intervals –screaming, threatening congregants, and physically resisting removal," then all the defendants at that event "blockaded egress from the Church to the parking lot, intentionally creating a chaotic and violent environment for hundreds of guests seeking to leave," the suit says.

They came back on Easter Sunday, "holding signs with grotesque images of dead babies and yelling at the children of the church when they saw them outside," using bullhorns to scream "obscenities and slurs at the children" even after police told protesters to go across the street. 

The suit says "safety officers" escorted several attendees back to their cars, and those parked in overflow had to walk "directly past" protesters and their "vitriolic chants and graphic signs."

Ignored cease-and-desist, police refused to stop 'ear-splitting sirens'

The disruptions reached a head at the September event at the Legacy International Center's amphitheater, with an Orthodox rabbi opening prayer and several pastors and rabbis speaking and leading worship, according to the suit.

The church's counsel had sent Brunner a cease-and-desist letter in May to prevent further disruptions, but he and six other named defendants, the most yet, and 15 unknown defendants showed up to the September event and created mayhem, First Liberty claims.

Defendants arrived long before, "intentionally occupied the road to block both entrances to the venue" and funneled all vehicles into the only remaining entrance, slowing everyone to a crawl as disruptors walked in front of and behind cars with bullhorns shouting "Zionism is Naziism!" and "Go back to Israel!" among other epithets, the suit says.

In addition to Doe 26, a "pink-haired woman wearing a full black face mask" carrying the sign "Only C---s Support Israel" who jumped on Mastron's car, others physically intruded into the cars of other attendees to yell at them, hit their vehicles or surround them so they couldn't move, the plaintiffs allege.

The threatening behavior on the ground prompted several cars to turn around, and the actual attendance that day was "far less than the number of pre-registered guests."

Those who made it in endured "ear-splitting sirens for three hours," and senior citizens had to remove their hearing aids, staying "only to show solidarity at the event." Wearing earplugs themselves, the defendants caused "ongoing physical harm" to attendees' ears, yet police told organizers they "'don't enforce noise ordinances,'" the suit says.