In Pauker v. Heart Consciousness Church, Inc., (ND CA, Oct. 9, 2025), a California federal district court dismissed religious and racial discrimination claims brought by a Jewish musician against a concert venue that cancelled his Hanukkah concert because of negative community reaction to the musician's Facebook post in support of Israel. The court said in part:
All of Pauker’s claims require at least racial or religious discrimination to be actionable. But the allegations in Pauker’s complaint fail to raise a reasonable inference of such discrimination. To the contrary, the complaint offers an alternative basis for Harbin’s decision to cancel Pauker’s performance: a severe, negative community reaction. For that reason, among others, Pauker fails to state a claim upon which relief could be granted.....
The parties differ on whether Pauker’s Facebook post implicates his religion or race. Pauker centers his allegations on his Zionist beliefs—insisting that Zionism is a proxy for Judaism or Jewish racial identity.... Heart rejects this argument, contending that Zionism is purely political.... The Court notes that the relationship between Zionism and Judaism is “hotly disputed.”... But parsing this issue is ultimately unnecessary because Heart is correct that Pauker fails to allege Harbin targeted him because he is Jewish....
... Pauker alleges that Harbin reiterated it was “canceling the event due to community complaints about” Pauker’s Zionism, particularly his Facebook post.... Harbin conveyed that the backlash to Pauker was widespread and came from “community members, including performers and presenters.”...Pauker does not allege that Harbin’s stated reasoning was pretextual or that Harbin commented critically on his beliefs or Jewish faith.
[Thanks to Eugene Volokh via Religionlaaw for the lead.]
