Monday, June 1, 2026
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Ninth Circuit:
Lawsuit by Lawyer Who Was Expelled From Membership in Bar Group Was a SLAPP
By a MetNews Staff Writer
A Beverly Hills lawyer who sued a volunteer trial lawyers association, its executive director and members of the Executive Committee and the Board of Governors, after being booted out of the organization for remarks viewed as intemperate, on Friday lost his bid in the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for a reversal of an anti-SLAPP motion in favor of the sole remaining defendant, a former board member.
Woodland Hills attorney David Hoffman was the only one of nine defendants, which included the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles (“CAALA”), who did not settle while plaintiff Neal S. Zaslavsky’s appeal was pending. Hoffman said on Friday the terms of the settlement are confidential.
Zaslavsky contested a March 14, 2024 order by District Court Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett of the Central District of California granting motions under California’s anti-SLAPP statute, Code of Civil Procedure §425.16.
Allegations of Complaint
According to his Aug. 8, 2023 complaint, Zaslavsky participated on May 15 of that year “in a lively, and at times, heated, discussion” on a CAALA listserv featuring discussions of political matters. He recounted:
“The discussion in which MR. ZASLAVSKY engaged was one in which members loosely discussed the candidacy of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for President of the United States. The discussion was started by MR. HOFFMAN, referring to the beleaguered Governor of Florida as ‘Ron DeSadist,’ claimed that while he was generally opposed to inflammatory language and name-calling, because Gov. DeSantis was so despicable, MR. HOFFMAN stated that was willing to make an exception and therefor refer to the governor by this unpleasant moniker. Troublingly, the conversation about Florida’s governor was quickly hijacked by certain CAALA members, including but not limited to MR. [Keith Lasalle] ALLEN, MR. [Samer Sami] HABBAS, and MR. HOFFMAN himself (who routinely boasts about his prominent anti-Israel views) into a sham and ill-informed criticism of the Stale of Israel.”
The lawyer went on to say:
“After the vicious, anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic attacks continued to fester, unchallenged by CAALA’s management, leadership, or any of the named Defendants, MR. ZASLAVSKY responded—perhaps a bit inarticulately—to the two CAALA members who have systematically engaged in some of the most vitriolic anti-Semitic, anti-Zionist, Jew-hating rhetoric over the past many years, referring to them as ‘professional Palestinian terrorists.’ ”
That remark was not directed at Hoffman.
The listserv rules specify:
“PROHIBITED CONDUCT: Offensive, obscene, racist, sexist, inflammatory, libelous, threatening, abusive, harassing, pornographic, privacy invading, and/or hateful language is prohibited. Any personal attack on another MEMBER in a message is prohibited.”
Zaslavsky’s Email
After CAALA Executive Director Kwedi Moore emailed Zaslavsky to tell him that he was being suspended from the listserv for 30 days, he responded to her, in part:
“I don’t know you, and quite frankly, I don’t care to know you. When Stuart Zanville ran this organization, we didn’t coddle Jew-haters and anti-Semites. You appear to have very different modus operandi. It is my understanding that your personal beliefs more closely align with the Jew-hating anti-Semites who attacked me, rather than the people like me who closely align ourselves with the famous words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who famously equated anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism.
“I am very comfortable being on the same side as Dr. King, and I am never going to back down when a Jew-hating, terrorist-supporting anti-Semite attacks me, Israel, or the Jewish people. Shame on you for supporting such disgusting behavior.”
In his pleading, Zaslavsky acknowledged that he “reacted in the unfortunate way that many similarly situated people do, criticizing the messenger rather than the message itself” and recounted that, “realizing that his e-mail to MS. MOORE was likely too strongly worded, MR. ZASLAVSKY drafted and sent a heartfelt apology to MS. MOORE.”
Nonetheless, he was put on notice that his expulsion from the organization was being contemplated. He appeared via Zoom at the Board of Governors’ June 15, 2023 meeting, making a presentation of about six minutes and responding to questions for about 50 minutes.
The vote was 41 in favor of revoking his membership and two against the action, with seven abstentions. Zaslavsky was also barred from attending CAALA events.
He sued, alleging, among other things, unlawful discrimination in a public accommodation, invoking a federal statute and California’s Unruh Act.
Garnett’s Ruling
Garnett found that the first prong of California’s anti-SLAPP statute—that the conduct in question is protected—is met, and proceeded to the second prong: whether the lawsuit has minimal merit. She found that each of the claims fails to meet that test.
As to CAALA being a “public accommodation,” she said:
“According lo CAALA Defendants and uncontested by Plaintiff, CAALA is a private bar association that restricts membership to a segment of practicing attorneys in good standing who represent plaintiffs and do not represent certain classes of defendants.”
Garnett added that “far from being open to the public at large, it grants membership only if the applicant meets narrow, specified criteria.
Ninth Circuit Decision
Affirmance came in a memorandum opinion signed by Circuit Judges Ryan D. Nelson and Lawrence VanDyke, along with Senior District Court David A. Ezra of the District of Hawaii, sitting by designation. They wrote:
“Zaslavsky argues that Hoffman’s motion to strike raised several ‘significant factual issues,’ including whether Zaslavsky was suspended for ‘uncivil email posts’ and whether a letter sent by Zaslavsky to CAALA’s Executive Director…was ‘offensive.’ These are not factual issues, because it was not the role of the district court under any of Zaslavsky’s claims to inquire into whether the communications were sufficiently ‘uncivil’ or ‘offensive’ to justify Zaslavsky’s CAALA membership termination. The court was instead tasked with determining whether the proper procedures were followed by CAALA in compliance with the bylaws and California Corporations Code. And the court will not disturb an association’s decision to terminate membership if the association followed the procedures authorized in their bylaws (and in compliance with the law).”
The opinion continues:
“Zaslavsky further claims that the motion to strike raised the factual issue of whether Zaslavsky ‘was given fair and proper notice.’ This is not a factual issue, because ‘reasonable notice is a question of law.’ ”
It adds:
“…Zaslavsky’s complaint fails to make a plausible claim that Hoffman acted unlawfully as Director of the CAALA Board of Governors. The district court did not err in granting Hoffman’s special motion to strike under California’s anti-SLAPP statute.”
The case is Zaslavsky v. Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles, 24-2367.
Zaslavsky Comments
Zaslavsky said on Friday:
“It is unsurprising that 2 Trump-appointed judges (and a Reagan appointee) would ignore the law and perpetuate a clear and obvious denial of due process.”
Nelson and VanDyke were appointed by President Donald Trump during his first term and Ezra was named to his post by President Ronald Reagan.
The lawyer continued:
“While the 9th Circuit used to be a place where litigants could have a fair day in court to seek redress of clear errors and denials of due process and basic civil rights, these principles are anathema to the current regime in Washington. The decision—made without even affording the litigants an opportunity to make oral argument—is ill-informed at best, and is untethered to the actual facts and law. We intend to seek en banc review of a decision which is a slap in the face of justice.”
Zaslavsky added:
“As iconic civil and human rights leader, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. famously said: ‘He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.’ We intend to heed the wise words of Dr. King as our guidepost in continuing forward, as we have done all along.”
Hoffman remarked:
“Writing as a member, only, and not a member of the BOG, I’m glad for the affirmance because the district court’s opinion was correct. It showed that CAALA had a good set of bylaws, followed its own expulsion procedures without bias, and the trial court and court of appeals properly deferred to the BOG/EC. Credit Kwedi Moore, CAALA’s Executive Director, for keeping our house in order. Peace out.”
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