DOJ Civil Rights Division opened a civil-rights probe into a Brooklyn coffee shop that refused to serve Rep. Dan Goldman over his pro-Israel views

On the night of June 22, 2026, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon announced on X that the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division had opened an investigation into Poetica Coffee, a small coffee shop in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. The investigation followed the shop's decision to refund and publicly ban U.S. Representative Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) after learning of his support for Israel. In a since-deleted Instagram post, the business told Goldman not to return and wrote that it would have turned him away had staff recognized him, adding, "we don't need your money."

Dhillon asserted that federal law prohibits public accommodations such as coffee shops from discriminating against patrons based on race, religion, or national origin, and said the Department "will bring enforcement action if warranted." The Civil Rights Division's public-accommodations authority under Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 has historically been directed at systemic denial of service to protected groups, not at a single business's viewpoint-based refusal to serve an individual elected official.

Goldman, describing his own visit, said the barista "couldn't have been nicer" and had allowed his daughter to use the restroom, calling the episode "a reflection... of a sad state of affairs." The announcement of a federal civil-rights probe against a lone small business, delivered through a senior official's personal social-media account, drew attention to the politically salient nature of the target.