Nassau Dem Organizers, NYCLU File Suit Over House Of Worship Buffer Law

NASSAU COUNTY, NY — Nassau County Executive and New York Governor candidate Bruce Blakeman is facing a lawsuit in his home county Wednesday, after a political organizer in the county alleged that a January law barring protests from taking place at houses of worship unduly restricts free speech.

In a complaint filed Wednesday, South Shore Women’s Alliance founder and executive director Claudia Borecky said the January ban — which establishes a 35-foot “buffer zone” around houses of worship, within which protests are prohibited — unduly restricts freedom of speech rights for Nassau County residents.

Specifically, Borecky and her co-plaintiff, Mariateresa Thiery, say two provisions in that ban “stifle speech outside houses of worship by restricting, for large periods of time, expressive activity within 35 feet of houses of worship and speech targeted at other individuals without their express consent between 100 and 35 feet of houses of worship.”

According to their complaint, Borecky and Thiery are seeking a ruling that the buffer law violates the first and fourteenth amendments as well as multiple articles of the New York State constitution. Furthermore, the complaint reads, they’re seeking a ruling that prevents the enforcement of the buffer law and prevents, “further violations of constitutional rights by restraining Defendants from enforcing the Nassau Buffer Law.”

Wednesday, the county executive said the buffer law was more about protecting the right to freedom of religion than anything pertaining to free speech.

“Protecting the rights of individuals to practice religion freely is a guaranteed right under the constitution of the United States. I suggest the NYCLU get better constitutional lawyers,” Blakeman said.

According to Borecky and Thiery’s complaint, the action stems from a plan they had made to hand out copies of a statement from the Catholic Bishops of New York State, titled, “For You Too Were Once Aliens.” The plan, the complaint reads, was set for Dec. 21, 2025. The buffer zone law, however, was enacted four days prior. Believing their action would violate the buffer law, the duo scrapped their plan to hand out copies of the statement.

“When I learned that I could be jailed for distributing a New York Catholic Bishops’ Statement to churchgoers because of Nassau’s buffer zone law, I felt my voice being silenced and my freedoms chipped away,” Borecky said in a Wednesday statement. “As a Christian, an American, and an activist, I can’t stay silent and ignore policies that leave millions of children hungry, violate the Constitution, or dehumanize our immigrant neighbors. Our freedom of speech and right to assemble exist for a reason, and if we lose these rights, everything else falls with it. We must stand up and fight back. I hope fellow Christians pause, look inward, and ask themselves with honesty and compassion: What would Jesus do?”

At a larger level, the plaintiffs in Wednesday's suit argue that the buffer law makes it nearly impossible to organize a demonstration or protest anywhere in Nassau County, a county with almost 1,000 houses of worship. In the complaint, they refer specifically to dense concentrations of religious institutions around key thoroughfares in Hempstead, Freeport and Merrick as examples of areas where it becomes difficult to demonstrate without running afoul of the buffer law.

"In more populous towns, the law threatens to make entire streets impassable for marches and other forms of moving speech," the plaintiffs said. "All across the County, the Nassau Buffer Law threatens individuals’ right to assemble peacefully and to engage in protected speech and expressive conduct, even though the County legislature has failed to show any evidence of a need for such infringements on these fundamental rights."

Thiery added that she found the potential impact of the buffer law “terrifying.”

“Freedom of speech and expression are fundamental. When you don’t have that, you don’t have freedom,” Thiery said. “Without the First Amendment, you cannot ensure all the other freedoms. The fact that I cannot speak in my own community is terrifying. Protecting freedom of speech in this country is urgent.”

Borecky is no stranger to political organizing in Nassau County, as the complaint makes clear. In recent months she has stood on the steps of the Nassau County Legislative and Executive building to call for opioid funds to be distributed, organized a candlelight vigil for Renee Good, who died after being shot by federal agents, and played a role in organizing an “ICE Out” rally across Sunrise Highway in Nassau County.

The suit is also filed in conjunction with the New York Civil Liberties Union, itself no stranger to litigating in Nassau County. Previously, the NYCLU has challenged policies in Nassau including a Massapequa School District policy that would bar students from using facilities that align with their gender identity. In this case, however, the NYCLU said its focus doesn’t stop in Nassau.

“Nassau’s Buffer Law is an illegal, unnecessary, and sweeping restriction on First Amendment speech and activity that must be struck down,” NYCLU Senior Staff Attorney JP Perry said. “New York law already protects worshippers and their safe access to worship, but here there is no record of any Nassau resident facing intimidation, harassment, or violence outside of a place of worship in Nassau County that justifies such an extreme prohibition. It’s clear that the purpose of this policy is to silence protected speech, deny residents their expressive rights to the sidewalks and streets, and to give Nassau police cover to conduct arbitrary and biased arrests. With this lawsuit, we’re putting lawmakers across the state on notice that unjustified and unnecessary buffer zones are illegal, and we will prove that in court.”

For Susan Gottehrer, the director of the NYCLU’s Nassau County office, the suit is a chance to challenge what she called an “illegal, overarching ban on protest.”

“Here in Nassau County, so many of us engage in protest, organize for our rights, and fight for what we believe in. It’s in our DNA,” said Susan Gottehrer, Director of the NYCLU’s Nassau County Office. “But Blakeman’s illegal, overarching ban on protest outside of Nassau’s houses of worship has acted as a blunt instrument on our ability to speak out. At a moment when the federal government is targeting, arresting, and even murdering ordinary citizens for peaceful protest, we must do everything we can to defend the First Amendment and reject Blakeman’s authoritarian attempts to squash our speech.”