In 2013, the AFDI sued King 
County, Washington, for refusing 
to post a bus advertisement titled 
“The Faces of Global Terrorism.” 
Another branch of the AFDI 
called “Stop Islamization of 
America,” 
had 
already 
been 
blocked 
from 
attempting 
to 
post similar advertisements a 
year earlier in New York City’s 
subway system.
By 2015, the case was brought 
to the Ninth Circuit Federal 
Court of Appeals, where Muise 
and Yerushalmi claimed the 
AFDI had the First Amendment 
right to advertise its views freely. 
Following the court’s siding 
with King County, the AFLC 
attempted to appeal and take 
the case to the Supreme Court, 
though their request to be heard 
by the court was rejected 7-2 in 
2016. 
Within the SPLC, Yerushalmi 
is listed as “a key figure in 
the 
U.S. 
anti-Muslim 
hate 
movement,” 
and 
has 
been 
monitored by the SPLC for the 
past several years. According to 
SPLC Communications Director 
Rebecca Sturtevant, the group 
has 
gathered 
a 
significant 
amount 
of 
information 
on 
Yerushalmi and his legal and 
political activity.
In a 2017 video interview 
cited by the SPLC, Yerushalmi 
explicitly 
stated 
his 
views 
toward the Muslim community 
and its presence in America.
“I don’t have a problem saying 
that 
Western 
cultural 
and 
civilization is simply supreme,” 
Yerushalmi said. “It’s superior 
to that which is conquered, 
and I have no problem with 
saying that Islamic culture 
is 
violent, 
it’s 
misogynist, 
it’s 
discriminatory 
and 
it’s 
backward, and all I have to do 
is point to the entire Muslim 
world.”
According 
to 
the 
SPLC, 
Yerushalmi is also the founder 
of the Society of Americans 
for National Existence, which 
was established in the wake of 

the 9/11 attacks and promoted 
the idea that Islamic religious 
law is “a criminal conspiracy 
to 
overthrow 
the 
U.S. 
government.”
The AFLC’s work for anti-
immigrant 
causes 
and 
its 
founders’ anti-Muslim views 
brought 
it 
to 
the 
SPLC’s 
attention. Following the SPLC’s 
report 
released 
in 
March, 
Michigan 
Attorney 
General 
Dana Nessel established a unit 
to investigate and prosecute 
Michigan 
organizations 
perpetuating 
hate 
crimes. 
Muise is currently in the midst 
of ongoing litigation with Nessel 
and the Michigan Department 
of Civil Rights over the unit.
After filing an initial lawsuit 
on Feb. 28, the AFLC filed its first 
amended complaint on March 
12 against Nessel and MDCR 
Director Agustin Arbulu. The 
legal document cited First and 
14th Amendment violations in 
Nessel and Arbulu’s conduct 
toward the AFLC in recent 
weeks.
According to Muise, while 
the hate crimes unit has yet to 
prosecute the AFLC for hate 
crimes, Nessel’s inclusion of the 
AFLC as a potential hate group 
represents 
an 
infringement 
on the group’s Constitutional 
freedoms.
“(The 
attorney 
general’s 
office) is a government agency 
that 
has 
law 
enforcement 
authority, 
targeting 
us 
as 
engaging in illegal conduct 
against minority organizations,” 
Muise said. “Now that the state 
is involved, the government is 
involved, that’s triggered our 
constitutional 
protections. 
And we seek to protect those 
in federal court by a court 
declaration that protects us, 
that keeps us from being a target 
of the attorney general and the 
Department of Civil Rights.”
According to Muise, none of 
AFLC’s past or current actions 
would 
justify 
prosecutorial 
measures by the Office of 
the Attorney General. As he 
explains, the AFLC classifies 
itself as “a public interest law 

firm defending the rights of 
those 
who 
promote 
Judeo-
Christian values.”
Regarding the case against 
the state of Michigan, however, 
Muise 
argues 
that 
defense 
of 
civil 
liberties 
against 
government 
infringement 
remains the sole rationale of the 
AFLC’s legal argument.
“I took an oath as a marine 
officer to support and defend 
the Constitution against all 
enemies foreign and domestic 
and that’s what I do,” Muise 
said. “And right now, I consider 
the Michigan AG’s office to be 
a domestic enemy, because of 
what they’re doing in violating 
our Constitutional rights.”
Furthermore, Muise claims 
the 
MDCR 
and 
attorney 
general’s use of information 
from the Southern Poverty Law 
Center is not only inaccurate, 
but represents a problematic use 
of information from a partisan 
group by a government agency.
“You 
have 
the 
attorney 
general, 
who’s 
weaponizing 
that office in a way that they’re 
targeting political opponents,” 
Muise said. “So now in the mind 
of the public, the American 
Freedom 
Law 
Center 
is 
a 
criminal organization operating 
here in Michigan, and that’s just 
plainly wrong, it’s illegal for the 
government to do that.”
The AFLC built on this 
argument in its first amended 
complaint, writing, “Defendants 
and SPLC are conspiring and 
working 
jointly 
to 
promote 
SPLC’s 
radical 
political 
agenda, by targeting political 
opponents, such as plaintiff, 
for investigations, surveillance, 
public 
condemnation, 
public 
scorn, 
and 
other 
efforts 
designed to harm their work.”
In response to the accusations 
against the attorney general, 
state 
Rep. 
Yousef 
Rabhi, 
D-Ann Arbor, said the AFLC’s 
decision to sue the state was 
not a surprise, considering the 
group’s past actions and the 
progressive goals outlined by 
the MDCR.
“It’s not surprising to me 

that an organization like the 
American Freedom Law Center 
or other far-right organizations 
would attack them, because 
what they’re doing is actually 
protecting 
marginalized 
communities,” 
Rabhi 
said. 
“They’re protecting people of 
color, they’re protecting the 
LGBTQ community and these 
are people that these groups 
are coming after actively. If you 
have an organization like the 
Michigan Department of Civil 
Rights and the Civil Rights 
Commission that’s helping to 
protect them, of course they’re 
going to come after them.”
Rabhi explained that the 
AFLC’s legal action against 
Nessel 
not 
only 
represents 
opposition to the progressive 
measures 
she 
has 
pursued 
during the first three months of 
her term, but also demonstrates 
opposition 
to 
the 
potential 
for social change her recent 
election proved to the people of 
Michigan.
“They also came after our 
attorney general as well, Dana 
Nessel, who is the first openly 
LGBT attorney general of our 
state, and so of course they’re 
going after her,” Rabhi said. “She 
is a champion of the people, she’s 
done amazing work already in 
the first three months, standing 
up for the people of this state 
and protecting people’s rights. 
It’s not surprising that far-right 
organizations would come after 
her and sue her in her pursuit of 
having a more just and equitable 
society here in the state of 
Michigan.”
AFLC’s lawsuit against the 
attorney general and MDCR 
made reference to several state 
and federal statutes permitting 
free expression and open legal 
representation.
Law student Kevin Deutsch 
explained the basis of the 
AFLC’s lawsuit against the 
attorney general’s office, as set 
out in the organization’s first 
amended complaint.

“I think obviously our 
organization has talked a 
lot about how Michigan 
is going to be a really 
important state in the 2020 
election,” Mancuso said. 
“And I think that having 
the debate in Detroit is 
just another example of 
politicians recognizing the 
importance 
of 
Michigan 
and a lot of Midwestern 
states 
for 
the 
2020 
elections.”
Mancuso also noted the 
significance of holding the 
debate in Detroit, a city 
with a history of economic 
issues important to many 
Democrats.
“Specifically 
having 
it 
in Detroit I think is going 
to 
be 
really 
exciting,” 
Mancuso 
said. 
“Detroit 
is a city that has been hit 
pretty hard with a lot of 
economic 
struggles 
and 
there are a lot of issues 
that are really prevalent to 
the people of Detroit that 
I think will be brought up 
by Democrats during the 
debates so it’s going to be 

really interesting how that 
all works out.”
LSA 
junior 
Kate 
Nachazel, vice president 
of the University’s chapter 
of 
College 
Republicans, 
echoed Mancuso’s points 
of Michigan being a key 
state in the 2020 election. 
Nachazel also said she was 
glad to see an opportunity 
for Detroit residents to gain 
attention in the election.
“I’m excited about it,” 
Nachazel 
said. 
“There 
was one in Detroit for the 
Republican Party in the 
2016 election. I’m really 
excited 
that 
Detroit’s 
getting a lot of recognition. 
I’m 
from 
a 
suburb 
of 
Detroit, so anything that 
boosts economy and gives 
Detroiters 
an 
influence 
and power in the national 
stage is really a good thing. 
I’m really interested to see 
what the Democrats have 
to say because I don’t want 
to just blindly support the 
incumbent and I want to 
make sure I hear all views.”
The first debate will be 
held in Miami, Florida.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, April 3, 2019 — 3A

VOUCHERS
From Page 1A

CSG
From Page 1A

LAWSUIT
From Page 1A

DEBATE
From Page 1A

MAYOR
From Page 1A

Lightfoot 
received 
her 
bachelor’s degree in political 
science from the University, 
graduating 
with 
honors 
in 1984. According to her 
campaign website, Lightfoot 
“paid her own way through 
college with loans and a series 
of work-study jobs” and went 
on to get her law degree from 
the University of Chicago.
Law 
professor 
Barbara 
McQuade tweeted her support, 
noting Lightfoot’s time as a 
resident adviser at Bursley 
Hall in the 1980s.
“Hey, Chicago! Here’s your 
chance to elect a tremendous 
leader, 
@LightfootForChi,” 
McQuade tweeted. “I have 
known and respected Lori 
Lightfoot since she was an RA 
in Bursley Hall at @Umich. 
She solved problems with great 
integrity then, and has spent 3 
decades learning and serving. 
Vote for Lori.”
University spokesman Rick 

Fitzgerald 
congratulated 
Lightfoot on her victory.
“It’s always gratifying to 
see our graduates succeed at 
the highest levels, especially 
for those who choose public 
service,” Fitzgerald said.
LSA senior Maddie Sinder, 
a resident of Chicago, said 
Lightfoot’s win has the ability 
to inspire change in the city.
“This is an exciting time in 
Chicago politics,” Singler said. 
“In such a competitive mayoral 
race, it is remarkable that a 
candidate willing to stick to 
her convictions could rise to 
victory. I believe that Lightfoot 
has the political ability and 
determination 
to 
make 
a 
positive difference in Chicago… 
Her focus on inclusion and 
helping the underserved will 
promote substantive progress 
for our city.”
The election saw low voter 
turnout, with only 35 percent 
of registered voters showing 
up to the polls. According 
to the Chicago Sun-Times, 
Lightfoot won over a majority 
of 
demographics, 
including 

white, Black and Hispanic 
voters, a group reminiscent 
of the “rainbow coalition” 
that helped elect the city’s 
first 
Black 
mayor, 
Harold 
Washington, in 1983.
Business sophomore Hollya 
Israil, a resident of Chicago, 
said she was excited to see 
Lightfoot win.
“I 
think 
electing 
Lori 
Lightfoot is significant for 
Chicago, especially for a city 
that is stereotypically known 
to be segregated, and feel as 
if her strong background as 
a diverse lawyer resonates 
with residents concerned with 
City Hall corruption and low-
income/working class minority 
groups being left behind in 
political 
decision-making 
because she is a supporter 
of 
neighborhood 
school 
improvements, 
expanding 
housing 
affordability, 
job 
expansions 
and 
other 
social issues that divide the 
population,” Israil said.
Lightfoot will succeed two-
term mayor Rahm Emanuel, 
a former chief of staff to 

President 
Barack 
Obama. 
Emanuel decided not to seek 
re-election as his approval 
ratings 
dropped 
in 
recent 
years, due in large part to 
anger over the city’s response 
to the 2014 police shooting of 
17-year-old Laquan McDonald.
During Emanuel’s tenure, 
Lightfoot led a task force that 
pushed for broad changes to 
the Chicago Police Department 
to 
combat 
discrimination. 
On the campaign trail, she 
pledged to reform policing in 
the city and root out abuses of 
power by law enforcement. She 
also touted her understanding 
of the inner workings of city 
government.
“I think I’ve had a lot of 
experience in helping run most 
challenging 
city 
agencies,” 
Lightfoot said. “I have a very 
deep knowledge of how the 
city works, both from that 
experience, and also I helped 
a lot of different individuals 
in business navigate a lot of 
byzantine processes in the 
city.”

Jennifer Hall, the executive 
director for the Ann Arbor Housing 
Commission, said in an email 
interview that affordable housing 
projects are actually beneficial for 
both residents and the city. Hall 
noted programs like the voucher 
waitlist reduce the number of 
people who have to find alternate 
living situations.
“When people cannot pay their 
rent, they end up losing their 
housing and end up moving in 
with family and friends or living 
in their vehicles or living on the 
street,” Hall said. “It is much less 
expensive to build housing than it 
is to provide emergency services 
to homeless households in shelters, 
schools, hospitals and jails.”
Housing choice vouchers are 
subsidies given by the federal 
government to assist low-income 
families with demonstrated need. 
Public housing agencies, which are 
specific to each county, manage 
the vouchers. According to a fact 
sheet from the U.S. Department of 
Housing and Urban Development, 
the individual public housing 
agencies determine a family’s 
eligibility for a housing voucher 
and ask that each family allocate 30 
percent of their income to rent and 
utilities.
According to Hall, more than 
90 percent of Washtenaw County 
households that make less than 
$20,000 spend more than half 
of their income on rent. Hall 
said the high cost of living in 
Ann Arbor is due in part to the 
University, which is the largest 
employer in the community and 
often forces low-income residents 
to seek housing elsewhere.
“The 
University 
does 
not 
pay property taxes to support 
the city’s infrastructure and 
continues to purchase private 
properties, which removes them 
from the tax rolls,” Hall said. “The 
University continues to increase 
student 
enrollment 
and 
hire 
more faculty and staff without 
providing 
additional 
housing 
opportunities in the community. 
It’s simple supply and demand 
and the demand is far outpacing 
supply, which drives up housing 
costs for everyone.”
Lauren 
Schandevel, 
Public 
Policy senior and chair of Central 
Student 
Government’s 
Food 
Insecurity and Affordability Task 
Force, echoed Hall’s statement 
and said the affordable housing 
crisis can even affect areas 
outside of Ann Arbor.
“There aren’t enough dorms 
for the students we are admitting, 
and that’s a huge problem,” 
Schandevel said. “But also Ann 
Arbor is becoming increasingly 
expensive, so students have to 
move far away from campus or to 
Ypsilanti, which is subsequently 
gentrifying Ypsilanti, which is a 
city-university dynamic going on 
that makes it really unaffordable 
to live near campus.”
A few weeks ago, Schandevel 
and the other members of the task 
force contacted a pastor at a local 
church to turn that church into 
an affordable housing complex 
for students in need of more 
low-cost 
housing. 
Schandevel 
also noted how most of the 
solutions to affordable housing 
are organized and implemented 
by students rather than the 

University administration itself.
“None of this stuff is initiated 
by the University, which is a huge 
problem,” Schandevel said. “If 
it’s students doing all the work, 
there’s only so much we can do.”
In the past year, a variety of 
student housing developments 
have been proposed in Ann 
Arbor with mixed success. These 
proposals include a plan for 19 
units designated as affordable 
housing for low-income students.
Hall said the city has taken 
steps to fix the issue of affordable 
housing but has not yet been 
able to address the needs of all 
residents. She said the city’s 
current measures, which include 
donating over $1 million per 
year to local nonprofits, do not 
confront the root causes of 
housing unaffordability.
“The root cause is that the 
housing stock in the community 
does not match the income of the 
community,” Hall said. “We either 
need to increase the amount of 
housing stock that is affordable 
to low-income households and/
or people need to make a living 
wage so that they can afford the 
housing that is available.”
Susan Beckett, publisher at 
Groundcover News, a news outlet 
focusing on the needs of low-
income Ann Arbor residents, 
said the plans currently in place 
for 
affordable 
housing 
were 
made 15 years ago and are no 
longer sufficient. She also noted 
how people from across the 
country apply for housing choice 
vouchers in Washtenaw County 
because there are no restrictions 
on where applicants’ geographic 
location is.
“It was done with these low-
income housing tax credits, 
which 
only 
required 
those 
places to stay affordable for 
15 to 30 years,” Beckett said. 
“So that’s one thing. And there 
aren’t enough housing choice 
vouchers available and then the 
way those things work is that 
anyone can apply for a housing 
choice voucher anywhere in 
the country, they have to live in 
whatever place they first came 
from for a year, but after that 
they can transfer it anywhere. 
So people who live in places 
where housing choice vouchers 
have never come up because 
they’re in such high demand, 
they apply for them no matter 
where they come from.”
Beckett, who said the high 
number of applicants indicate 
that 
the 
system 
is 
“highly 
distressed,” also highlighted how 
the U.S. government as a whole is 
often unwilling to spend money 
on housing subsidies. She said 
this lack of funding contributes to 
affordable housing crises across 
the country.
“We’ve got a Congress that has 
been unwilling to spend money on 
anything except tax cuts for quite 
a long time,” Beckett said. “I don’t 
think it’s that they don’t want to 
spend it on affordable housing 
— if it’s not a tax cut, they don’t 
want to spend it at all. But the 
other side of it is that a lot of them 
associate 
subsidized 
housing 
with housing projects and that 
being a failure, and nobody wants 
to be part of a failure. So I think 
part of it is a matter of education, 
letting them build places that 
have done integrated housing — it 
works.” 

Read more online at 
michigandaily.com

The School of Education 
has been my window of 
opportunity to pursue my 
passions of making a difference 
in the education system.”
Following Elshafei’s election, 
Law student Victoria Allen 
gave a final report on the CSG 
election. In her presentation, 
Allen 
addressed 
concerns 
regarding 
Engineering 
sophomore 
Dylan 
Haugh-
Ewald’s presidential candidacy, 
of which he previously told The 
Daily he was uninformed.
According to Allen, Haugh-
Ewald turned in an election 
packet with multiple items 
filled out incorrectly, which 
were not initially caught by the 
Election Commission. She said 
she did not hear of any changes 
that needed to be made to the 
candidate list when she sent it 
out March 13.
Allen 
said 
Haugh-Ewald 
reached out to her March 21 
regarding his name on the 
ballot. She changed his election 
status, but failed to respond 
to him to inform him of the 
change. Haugh-Ewald filled 
out a filler platform on the 

sample ballot, and Allen said 
he asked her if he could change 
it once he saw his name on the 
presidential ticket.
“(Haugh-Ewald) 
reached 
out to me about (the filler 
platform) on March 27, which 
was when the election ballot 
was live, and it would’ve been 
inappropriate to change it,” 
Allen said. “I note that in my 
report that it was an error on 
my end and I did not follow up 
with him, but at the same time 
he had four days to change 
his platform and review the 
sample ballot, so that’s human 
error on both sides.”
The 
Assembly 
then 
nominated Whit Froehlich, 
third-year medical student, for 
speaker of the Ninth Assembly. 
Assembly 
members 
also 
nominated LSA sophomore 
Ben Glass to serve as vice 
speaker.
For the next portion of 
the meeting, the Assembly 
nominated members to serve 
as chairs and vice chairs of each 
of the six CSG committees. 
The 
Assembly 
nominated 
Rackham student Austin Glass 
for chair and Engineering 
freshman Carla Voigt for vice 
chair of the Rules Committee. 

LSA freshman Joey Schrayer 
was elected as chair and 
Engineering 
sophomore 
Sandra Dubaisi as vice chair 
of 
the 
Communications 
Committee.
In addition, the Assembly 
voted 
Engineering 
junior 
Mario Galindez as chair and 
LSA freshman Marwan Bazzi 
as vice chair of the Finance 
Committee. 
LSA 
freshman 
Sujin Kim became chair and 
LSA sophomore Selena Bazzi 
became vice chair of the 
Resolutions Committee, and 
Rackham 
student 
Hayden 
Jackson was elected chair 
and LSA sophomore Audrey 
Lynch was elected vice chair 
of the Executive Nominations 
Committee. 
Lastly, 
Law 
student 
Martese 
Johnson 
became chair and Engineering 
junior 
Zeke 
Majeske 
became vice chair of the 
Ethics Committee, and LSA 
sophomore Mia Kalt became 
the 
Bystander 
Intervention 
Training liaison.
At the conclusion of the 
meeting, 
Gerstein 
and 
Blanchard gave their first 
executive 
communications 
of 
the 
semester. 
Gerstein 
discussed the privilege of his 

position as CSG president and 
said he and Blanchard hope to 
serve as a valuable resource to 
the Assembly and University 
students.
“During the election, we 
all ran with the individual 
promises and action to make 
a change on campus, being a 
voice for the student body and 
an advocate to the University 
administration,” Gerstein said. 
“This responsibility shouldn’t 
be taken lightly, and our 
collective mission to encourage 
students in civic engagement, 
to voice student concerns and 
actively welfare the Michigan 
experience for everyone is a 
task we will all hold ourselves 
accountable for.”
In her statement, Blanchard 
encouraged 
Assembly 
members to find topics they 
believe 
are 
important 
to 
address 
through 
CSG 
on 
campus during their last weeks 
of the semester on campus.
“Your time spent in this 
organization ... it does not 
go unnoticed and it’s greatly 
appreciated,” Blanchard said. 
“… I hope you find what you’re 
passionate about as well as 
the resources you need to 
accomplish those goals.”

