27 Sep New CA Law Offers Legal Recourse for Victims of Hate Flyers Left in Driveways, on Cars

By Katy St. Clair
Bay City News

As multiple cities in California grapple with hate flyers left in people’s driveways containing antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ messages by self-described “alt-right” groups, law enforcement has had its hands tied due to concerns with First Amendment speech protections.

But as the old saying goes, free speech doesn’t mean someone can yell ‘Fire!” in a crowded theater, and a new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom this week aims to designate these targeted hate-messaging campaigns as illegal intimidation.

Assembly Bill 3024, the Stop Hate Littering Act, authored by state Assemblymember Chris Ward, D-San Diego, allows victims to sue in civil court and strengthens a 1976 state law, which states that all persons have the right to be free from violence and intimidation.

“The act of hate littering goes beyond what is intended in our First Amendment protections,” said Ward in a statement released by his office. “When hate groups are deliberately going into Jewish communities to leave anti-Semitic flyers on the doorsteps, vehicles and personal property of their victims to try to intimidate and harass them where they live, that’s not free speech. That’s attempting to turn neighbor against neighbor, and it makes the people these flyers are targeting afraid to be themselves and live their lives in their own neighborhood.”

Northern California has been particularly hit with hate litter, with East Bay cities like Berkeley, Walnut Creek and Concord waking up to flyers in their driveways containing antisemitic screeds, as well as the counties of Santa Clara, Sonoma and Marin, to name just a few.

Flyers saying, “every aspect of the Ukraine-Russia War is Jewish,” speculating that Jews were responsible for 9/11, blaming Jews for slavery and saying they control the United States government and media appeared in the Walnut Creek area during the Jewish High Holidays in 2022.

Last August, a group calling itself the Goyim Defense League left flyers stating “Hitler Was Right” in driveways of homes in Contra Costa and Alameda counties.

AB 3024 expands on the Ralph Civil Rights Act of 1976, which makes acts of violence or threats of violence based on the hate of protected groups illegal. It also allows people to sue if they feel they are a victim of a hate crime or a threatened hate crime.

Ward worked closely with San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott to tweak the law, he said in a press conference earlier this year.

“AB 3024 would update the definition of intimidation by threat of violence to include hate littering acts,” he said, adding that in order to violate the updated Ralph Act, the materials must be designed for the purpose of “terrorizing” private property owners.

“Free speech isn’t a free pass to intimidate and terrorize our communities,” said Elliott at the press conference. “This legislation makes it crystal clear to peddlers of hate that threatening materials are not just pieces of paper. Distributing hate flyers with the intent to intimidate and dehumanize people is unacceptable and under this bill, unlawful.”

According to Ward’s office, the new law goes into effect “immediately.”

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