Jewish Community Center's Lawsuit Against "Goyim Defense League" Can Go Forward
From Gordon Jewish Community Center v. Goyim Defense League, decided Wednesday by Judge Aleta Trauger (M.D. Tenn.):
The following factual allegations are taken from the Complaint and are accepted as true at the pleading stage. The Gordon Jewish Community Center ("GJCC") is a registered Tennessee nonprofit corporation and "cultural institution that has served as a lynchpin of the Jewish community of Nashville for more than 120 years." GJCC operates a community center on its privately-owned campus in Nashville where it offers a suite of youth, fitness, and senior programming and services.
The Goyim Defense League ("GDL") is alleged to be a "hate-for-profit enterprise" that exploits antisemitism and racism—in combination with harassment, intimidation, provocation, and violence—for monetary gain. GDL is a membership-based network that limits membership to those who share its mission for "declaring war on," "exterminating," and "subjecting Jews and people of color to harassment, intimidation[,] and violence for the purpose of creating 'white nations[.]'" To advance this mission, GDL sponsors hate-based roadshows styled as "Intimidation Tours." {Jon Minadeo II also refers to these tours as "Name the Nose Tours," a derogatory reference to an antisemitic trope regarding the noses of Jewish people that was prominent during Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime.} During Intimidation Tours, GDL's members and associates descend on towns with large Jewish and Black communities to harass, intimidate, threaten, and assault them.
GDL commercializes its hatred by operating an online video and streaming platform—Goyim TV—where it publishes GDL-created and branded video footage of its members and followers' acts of harassment, intimidation, and violence. GDL exploits this content to solicit donations from its members and followers who watch footage of these encounters and for the "opportunity to get recognized by GDL leaders and other white supremacists during livestreams." GDL also operates an online store—Goyim Shop—where it sells GDL-branded products promoting the group's racist and antisemitic mission. The merchandise marketed and sold by GDL includes Hitler masks, "swastika soap," and clothing with slogans such as "Gas the Jews With Us" and "Voting Will Not Remove Them."
The money generated from GDL-branded content and merchandise is then used to fund further acts of racist and religiously-motivated harassment, intimidation, and violence. …
In 2024, GDL leadership and associates began planning a campaign to target Nashville's Jewish community and communities of color (the "Nashville Intimidation Tour"). The Nashville Intimidation Tour was spearheaded by Jon Minadeo II, the founder, president, chief executive officer, and "mastermind" behind GDL. Minadeo is a proud white supremacist who has publicly called for a race war and the extermination of Jewish and Black people or their removal from the United States. In addition to defining GDL's mission and priorities, Minadeo also owns, manages, publishes on, and profits from Goyim TV and the Goyim Shop.
As with other Intimidation Tours, Minadeo organized, directed, and led the Nashville Intimidation Tour. He received assistance from others, including Paul Miller and Travis Keith Garland. Miller is a neo-Nazi provocateur who also calls for a race war and encourages the harassment and abuse of people—including children—who appear to be Jewish, Black, or Brown. He capitalizes on this activity by creating and publishing racist and antisemitic content on various online streaming and merchandising platforms, including on GDL platforms. Garland is an alleged member or associate of GDL and is employed as an "administrator" of Miller's "hate-for-profit video streaming enterprise." …
After extensive planning, communication, and travel arrangements, Minadeo, Miller, Garland, and nearly two dozen other GDL members traveled to Nashville in mid-July 2024 for "the express purpose of harassing, threatening, intimidating, abusing, and menacing" people they perceived to be Jewish and Black. For ten days, GDL rampaged through Nashville, waving swastika flags, screaming obscenities, and littering public and private property with antisemitic flyers. Not to be outdone, GDL members also harassed and intimidated four young Black children ranging in age from eight to eleven by calling them "monkeys" and various diminutives of the n-word, directed homophobic and other slurs at police officers who intervened and escorted the young children away, attacked a Jewish man, and brutally beat a biracial man. To top it off, the group threatened multiple people they perceived to be Jewish or Black, ran up to people and pretended that they were going to hit them, threw physical objects at people, and disrupted a meeting of the Metropolitan Nashville City Council. As Minadeo sees it, this conduct constitutes protected "free speech activism." GDL's acts were recorded by its members and published on online streaming platforms to fundraise and drum up support for additional acts of white supremacist violence….
GDL directs its members and followers to continue targeting Jewish and Black people "in real life" with additional acts of harassment, intimidation, and violence after the in-person part of a tour. GDL further directs its members and followers to record and share these "in real life" encounters, "either directly to GDL leadership or to upload via" Goyim TV to generate income and promote the group's "hate-for-pay scheme."
The Nashville Intimidation Tour was no different in this respect. After the in-person part of the tour concluded, the group continued to target Nashville's Jewish and Black communities with hateful activities. For example, GDL members and followers threatened to "make Nashville the target" of World War III, to "jump" and "curb[ ] stomp to death" the young biracial man who was brutally beaten by GDL members (including by Minadeo, who "attempted to gouge out his eyes"), and to kill the Davidson County District Attorney after he filed criminal charges against several GDL associates. GDL members engaged in these post-rally activities "in person and on GDL platforms."
Garland was also eager to undertake "in real life" activities and "remained active with GDL and continued to update Minadeo on his efforts at intimidating Tennessee's Jewish communities" following the in-person rampage in Nashville. To that end, Garland "entered into a related and overlapping conspiracy" with Miller and other GDL associates to infiltrate the GJCC. Like the in-person part of the Nashville Intimidation Tour, the purpose behind this conspiracy was to "harass, intimidate[,] and menace Jewish people in Nashville in order to create fear and anxiety so that Jews would not feel safe anywhere in Nashville." Miller, Garland, and others decided that "Garland would be the only conspirator on the ground in Nashville," with Miller and the other GDL associates assisting in "the criminal intrusion by providing direction, support, and encouragement before, during, and after the planned action."
On January 5, 2025, Garland traveled back to Nashville to launch the second wave of the Nashville Intimidation Tour. Disguising himself as an Orthodox Jewish man, Garland trespassed onto GJCC's private campus and live-streamed while he desecrated its Holocaust Memorial—"a sacred space on the campus of the GJCC"—"to create content for the benefit of GDL." Garland was in contact with Minadeo around the time of his initial trespass at the GJCC. Minadeo encouraged Garland, writing that his intrusion and acts of desecration were "fu**ing awesome."
About a week later, Garland returned to GJCC's campus in a similar disguise, but with the new goal of infiltrating its main community building. Once inside, Garland was turned away and directed to leave by GJCC's personnel. Refusing to leave, Garland "tried to get through doors to additional offices and community spaces in the GJCC." A GJCC member and another man stepped forward to block Garland from entering further into the building.
Garland then battered the two men in his attempt to gain further access to the building. He was eventually escorted out of the building by the nonprofit's security guard. After being escorted outside, Garland and others participating in his livestream remotely "hurled racial slurs at the security guard, who was of Asian descent."
Once off GJCC's property, Garland stalked the perimeter of the campus, trying to find another entrance. All the while, Garland remained on the phone with other GDL associates and livestreamed his trespass for viewers. He also spoke with Minadeo "to report that he was unhurt and to discuss his efforts to infiltrate the Jewish community center."
By his own alleged admission, Garland "stormed" the GJCC's "[J]ew building" for the purpose of "harassing" the cultural center and its members. Garland's activities also served GLD's bottom line: to commercialize antisemitism by capturing video footage that could be disseminated through GDL communication channels and on Goyim TV to raise funds for even more racist and antisemitic activity. Garland used GDL branding to promote his activities at the GJCC. Garland also discussed efforts with Minadeo to infiltrate the GJCC and discussed the second operation with Minadeo right after it concluded. Garland was later arrested and pled guilty to civil rights intimidation, assault, and trespass for his criminal activities at the GJCC….
At the outset, the court notes that GDL and Minadeo do not specifically address the four claims … asserted against them in any detail. Instead, the defendants seem to argue that the four claims fail as a matter of law because the Complaint's allegations do not plausibly establish that either defendant conspired with Garland, Miller, and other GDL members and followers to harm the GJCC….
The court concluded (quite correctly, I think) that the Complaint had sufficiently alleged a conspiracy; for more details, see the full opinion.