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“The motivation is to stop this person, and people like this person, from doing these overtly racist, bigoted remarks against any group of people, and to hold them responsible for their actions when sometimes others won’t,” said Sandy Shindleman, president and CEO of Shindico, a real-estate company at which his brother Robert is also an executive.

Many people, including the government, are reluctant to stand up to bullies, Mr. Shindleman said.

“We’re not. We’ve never backed down from a bully, or let a bully succeed in bullying people that we know. We’ll stand up for ourselves, we’ll stand up for others, and we’ll be counted,” he said.

Their lawyer, Robert Tapper, said this is primarily a libel action, but will also allege that the Shindlemans are the victims of hate speech. If proven, the hate-speech claim will allow the court to issue an injunction that would prevent Mr. Warren from “making statements or comments concerning the [Shindlemans] in any manner whatsoever.”

“This is a defamation action, which is using the racism of this guy to demonstrate why he should be enjoined. This guy is motivated not by civic obligation, not by civic duty, not by some sense of civic justice. He’s motivated because he is a racist,” Mr. Tapper said.

“His racist rants demonstrate beyond any shadow of a doubt that he is not exercising free speech here, that this is hate speech, and hate speech is the kind of thing which can be [subject to an injunction],” Mr. Tapper said. “He’s doing it in emails, he’s doing it in posters, and he’s doing it in blogs. I don’t know what’s next for this guy, and I don’t want to find out.”