FEBRUARY 10 • 2022 | 29

A

ttorney Marc Susselman says 
it’s not over yet after two years 
of legal battles between a 
group of protesters who have targeted a 
local shul in Ann Arbor for nearly two 
decades. A federal judge ruled Jan. 25 
that two members of the congregation 
will have to pay the protesters more than 
$150,000 in legal fees. 
“The whole decision is totally wrong, 
and I believe it will be reversed,” 
Susselman said. 
Susselman is the lead attorney 
who has worked with congregants of 
Congregation Beth Israel in Ann Arbor, 
which included Marvin Gerber and 
Dr. Miriam Brysk, a local Holocaust 
survivor, who filed a federal lawsuit in 
2019. 
However, the battle between the 
protesters and the Conservative 

congregation has been going on for 
much longer. For 18 years, a small 
group of people has picketed outside 
the congregation with antisemitic and 
anti-Israel signs along Washtenaw 
Avenue. 
U.S. District Court Judge Victoria 
Roberts ruled that the plaintiffs 
Gerber and Brysk, along with attorney 
Susselman, are responsible for the 
protesters’ attorney fees for pursuing 
meritless and frivolous claims. 
 Responding to the ruling in a phone 
conversation with the Jewish News, 
Susselman says Judge Roberts ruling is 
wrong and he will file an appeal. 
“If the court cannot determine how 
much time it spent on standing versus 
the rest, the cost is unable to be awarded 
to any of these because they’re not held 
to attorneys’ fees on standing because 

they lost … yet she goes ahead and 
award them fees on standing.” 
Standing is the legal term which 
determines if a party bringing the 
lawsuit has the right to do so. 
In 2020, Roberts ruled that the 
plaintiffs did not have standing to sue, 
adding in her ruling that the conduct 
was protected by the First Amendment, 
and dismissed the lawsuit. After an 
appeal, a federal appeals court in 2021 
ruled that the protests were protected by 
the First Amendment.
A week before Roberts’ ruling on 
attorneys’ fees, Susselman appealed the 
lawsuit’s dismissal to the U.S. Supreme 
Court, calling the ruling “a reversible 
error” and disputing the court’s claim 
that the lawsuit was frivolous.
“I’m hoping they’ll grant the petition 
and recognize that antisemitic speech 
in front of a house of worship for 18 
years is not protected by the First 
Amendment,” Susselman told the Jewish 
Telegraphic Agency. His plaintiff’s case, 
he said, rested on the idea that, outside a 
house of worship, “you can’t mingle hate 
speech with speech that is protected.”
Now the decision sits with the 
Supreme Court. “I’m optimistic the 
Supreme Court is going to grant my 
petition,” Susselman told the JN. 

OUR COMMUNITY

Plaintiffs’ attorney vows to fight ruling.

Ann Arbor Congregants 
Ordered to Pay 
Protesters’ Legal Fees

RACHEL SWEET ASSOCIATE EDITOR 

