A small Williamsburg coffee shop picked a fight with a sitting congressman over the war in Gaza. Now the United States Department of Justice has picked a fight with the coffee shop.
The shop is Poetica Coffee. According to amNY and NBC New York, Rep. Dan Goldman, the Democrat who represents the neighboring 10th District, stopped in on a Sunday with his 7-year-old daughter, outside his own district. Afterward, Poetica posted on Instagram that it had served him, then did not want his business, writing: “We don’t serve racists, fascists, homophobes, genocide enablers.” The “genocide enabler” line was aimed at Goldman over his vocal support for Israel in the war against Hamas.
That post is now a federal matter. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, a Trump appointee who runs the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, announced on X Monday night that the division had opened an investigation. “Federal law prohibits public accommodations such as coffee shops from discriminating against patrons based on their race, religion, or national origin,” she wrote.
Federal and New York anti-discrimination law bars businesses from refusing service based on protected characteristics like race, religion or national origin. It does not cover political belief or ideology. Goldman was not turned away for being Jewish, by the shop’s own account. He was turned away over his political position on Israel. It is unclear what law the Justice Department could actually enforce here.
A coffee shop used its Instagram to make a political statement and refuse a customer over his views. A congressman got publicly humiliated in a borough full of his own party’s voters. The federal government responded by aiming an anti-discrimination law, written to protect people for who they are, at what appears to be a dispute over political beliefs.
For now it is an announced investigation, not a charge, and Goldman has addressed it publicly. Whether the DOJ can do anything beyond the announcement is unclear. The answer will determine whether a business in Williamsburg can be federally investigated for who it chooses to argue with on social media.
Featured image: Bushwick Daily image
