Judge Says Kahane Can Return to U.s., Overruling Government

A Federal judge in Washington issued a temporary restraining order Wednesday allowing Rabbi Meir Kahane to enter the United States, over objections from the U.S. State Department.

The ruling, by U.S. District Court Judge Barrington Parker, enjoins the State Department from barring Kahane’s entry until a federal court rules on the merits of a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Washington.

The State Department maintains Kahane cannot enter the United States because he has renounced his U.S. citizenship. The department said Tuesday that Kahane had been informed that he is no longer a U.S. citizen.

But Kahane’s lawyers are expected to argue in court that he gave up his citizenship in September only as a condition of his next bid for the Knesset. The court is set to hear the case early next year.

Kahane, a member of Knesset since 1984, has been barred from participating in the Nov. 1 Israeli elections on the grounds that his Kach party is racist and undemocratic. The ban was upheld by Israel’s High Court of Justice.

The lawsuit, filed on Kahane’s behalf by Washington attorney Nathan Lewin, names the State Department and the Immigration and Naturalization Service in an attempt to establish that the Brooklyn-born rabbi has not lost his citizenship.

In his request for the restraining order, Lewin claimed Kahane was entitled to a hearing prior to a State Department decision on his citizenship. Furthermore, claimed Lewin, barring Kahane would cause the rabbi “irreparable harm,” while denying his right to free speech under the First Amendment to the Constitution.

Kahane is expected in the United States for a series of speaking engagements later this week. He will travel on a specially issued identification card, and not a U.S. passport.