DOJ Probes Brooklyn Coffee Shop Over Refund to Rep. Dan Goldman, Citing Anti-Bias Law
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Jun 22
DOJ Probes Brooklyn Coffee Shop Over Refund to Rep. Dan Goldman, Citing Anti-Bias Law
3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Jun 22
Summary
Harmeet Dhillon said the Justice Department has opened a civil-rights investigation into Brooklyn’s Poetica Coffee after the shop refunded Rep. Dan Goldman and said it would have turned him away over his support for Israel.
The now-deleted Facebook post told Goldman never to return, called him a “genocide enabler,” and said the shop does not serve “racists, fascists, homophobes” or people like him—language DOJ says could signal illegal discrimination in a public accommodation.
Goldman said the barista had been kind to him and his 7-year-old daughter, and he hoped the worker kept the tip; the shop later said the refund was the barista’s idea and told the New York Post, “We stand against genocide.”
Mark Treyger of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York said the episode should be reviewed under city and state human-rights laws, arguing it turned a coffee purchase into a test tied to Jewish identity and Middle East politics.
The dispute lands as Goldman faces a Democratic primary challenge from former city Comptroller Brad Lander and has intensified scrutiny of whether anti-Israel activism can cross into unlawful religious or national-origin discrimination.