Forbuddet mod Loyal to Familia

Foreningsfrihedens materielle grænser

Resumé

Abstract
On 1 September 2021, the Danish Supreme Court banned the gang Loyal to Familia (LTF) because it had an illegal aim and was therefore classified as an illegal association. This sentence marks a new understanding of the material limits to the constitutional freedom of association. It was the third ban of a Danish association, and the first ban of an association that did not have the aim of overthrowing democracy.

Using court transcripts, this article describes the contents and major themes in the evidence presented by the prosecutor. The gang’s organisation was structured and hierarchical as based on recovered documents described as containing membership lists, titles, fees and collective economic resources. Members committed a broad range of serious violent and drug-related offenses. Incarrcerated members of the gang violently attacked prison guards. In two instances, these attacks occurred outside of prisons on the behest of the gang.

The courts agreed that the gang itself facilitated some of the violence and drug offending. While their motivations differed, all three courts agreed that Danish society had a constitutional right. The courts also agreed that the administratively issued temporary ban on the gang from 2018 was legal.