Rokhvand & Barmada v. Herzfeld

Summary

The District of Columbia Court of Appeals affirmed the denial of Atefeh Rokhvand's and Hazami Barmada's petitions for anti-stalking orders against Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld, holding that his comments during three incidents at a protest outside the Israeli embassy were political hyperbole and not 'true threats' unprotected by the First Amendment. The court held that the D.C. Anti-SLAPP Act applies to petitions for anti-stalking orders as civil claims, but vacated the trial court's award of approximately $180,000 in attorney's fees to Herzfeld because the trial court failed to apply the correct standard for 'prevailing' on a special motion to dismiss under the Act. The court also vacated the trial court's alternative bad-faith rationale for the fee award because the petitioners lacked adequate notice that bad-faith sanctions were being considered.