DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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SEPTEMBER 30 • 2021 | 7

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24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110

Southfield, MI 48034

1-248-945-1111

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110

Southfield, MI 48034

1-248-945-1111

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24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110

Southfield, MI 48034

1-248-945-1111

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110

Southfield, MI 48034

1-248-945-1111

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110

Southfield, MI 48034

1-248-945-1111

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110
Southfield, MI 48034
1-248-945-1111

What Is
Your Plan?.....
Call Us.

We focus on Probate Litigation 
and Administration. Administering 
estates where everyone is on the same 
page. Protecting you from self-dealing 
parties appointed by will, trust or the 
court. Protecting you from family 
members who always want more.

michprobate.com

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110

Southfield, MI 48034

1-248-945-1111

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110
Southfield, MI 48034
1-248-945-1111

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110
Southfield, MI 48034
1-248-945-1111

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110

Southfield, MI 48034

1-248-945-1111

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110
Southfield, MI 48034
1-248-945-1111

What Is
Your Plan?.....
Call Us.

We focus on Probate Litigation 
and Administration. Administering 
estates where everyone is on the same 
page. Protecting you from self-dealing 
parties appointed by will, trust or the 
court. Protecting you from family 
members who always want more.

michprobate.com

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110

Southfield, MI 48034

1-248-945-1111

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110
Southfield, MI 48034
1-248-945-1111

What Is
Your Plan?.....
Call Us.

We focus on Probate Litigation 
and Administration. Administering 
estates where everyone is on the same 
page. Protecting you from self-dealing 
parties appointed by will, trust or the 
court. Protecting you from family 
members who always want more.

michprobate.com

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110

Southfield, MI 48034

1-248-945-1111

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110
Southfield, MI 48034
1-248-945-1111

michprobate.com

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110

Southfield, MI 48034

1-248-945-1111

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24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110
Southfield, MI 48034
1-248-945-1111

What Is

Your Plan?.....
Call Us.

We focus on Probate Litigation 
and Administration. Administering 
estates where everyone is on the same 
page. Protecting you from self-dealing 
parties appointed by will, trust or the 
court. Protecting you from family 
members who always want more.

michprobate.com

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110
Southfield, MI 48034
1-248-945-1111

What Is
Your Plan?.....
Call Us.

We focus on Probate Litigation 
and Administration. Administering 
estates where everyone is on the same 
page. Protecting you from self-dealing 
parties appointed by will, trust or the 
court. Protecting you from family 
members who always want more.

michprobate.com

with a complaint alleging 13 
violations of federal law and 
10 violations of state law.
They encountered a U.S. 
District Court judge who, 
they later alleged, should 
have been disqualified 
because she “had predeter-
mined the outcome of the 
lawsuit.” The judge brusquely 
dismissed the congregants’ 
lawsuit on the ground that 
they experienced only 
“intangible injury,” such as 
“extreme emotional distress.” 
This harm, she said, was not 
“concrete” enough to give 
them “standing” to file a law-
suit in a federal court.

NO STANDING?
The synagogue members 
took their case to the Court 
of Appeals for the Sixth 
Circuit. The only issue for 
appeal was the trial judge’s 
ruling aborting their claims 
because they had no “stand-
ing.” They also asked that the 
district judge be disqualified 
from the case if the appellate 
court agreed they had “stand-
ing” to pursue their claims.
The American Civil 
Liberties Union entered as 
an amicus curiae (“friend 
of the court”) to teach the 
judges that gathering when 
congregants came to wor-
ship on Saturday mornings 
and posting hostile signs 
while the worshippers were 
arriving and during their 
religious services was pro-
tected as Free Speech by the 
First Amendment to the U.S. 
Constitution.
The three judges assigned 
to hear the appeal includ-
ed the Sixth Circuit’s Chief 
Judge Jeffrey Sutton, a former 
law clerk to the late Supreme 
Court Justice Antonin Scalia 
and visiting lecturer at 
Harvard Law School. 

Sutton is widely respect-
ed among lawyers. He was 
a frequent oral advocate in 
the Supreme Court before 
assuming judicial robes. 
Among his most successful 
presentations to the High 
Court was his winning 
argument that the Religious 
Freedom Restoration Act 
— enacted by an almost 
unanimous Congress to pro-
tect religious liberty — was 
unconstitutional.
The first seven pages of 
a 13-page majority opinion 
written by Sutton and joined 
by a retired Circuit Judge 
conclude persuasively that 
the Jewish congregants have 
“standing” to pursue their 
claim. That should have 
ended the appeal in the con-
gregants’ favor. 
But rather than sending the 
case back for a trial before an 
impartial judge, Sutton pro-
ceeds in the last five pages 
of his opinion to throw out 
all claims on the ground that 
“the content and form of the 
protests demonstrate that 
they concern public matters: 
American-Israeli relations.” 
The Saturday morning 
gatherings and the aggres-
sive posters are, in his opin-
ion, “squarely within First 
Amendment protections of 
public discourse in public 
fora” and are shielded by “the 
robust protections that the 
First Amendment affords 
to nonviolent protests on 
matters of public concern.” 
He then dispatches the argu-
ments to the contrary with 
blinding speed.

PLAIN ANTISEMITISM
This is a frightening phe-
nomenon in today’s America. 
The voracious wolf of rank 
antisemitism is cloaked 
in the sheep’s fleece of 

