The
American
Freedom
Law Center, a conservative
public
interest
law
firm
based in Ann Arbor, won a
round in court on Jan. 15
when motions to dismiss the
group’s lawsuit were denied.
The group is suing Michigan
Attorney General Dana Nessel
and Agustin Arbulu, former
director
of
the
Michigan
Department of Civil Rights, on
the grounds of a constitutional
rights violation.
The
lawsuit
began
last
February when Nessel and
Arbulu issued a press release
in response to the Southern
Poverty Law Center’s annual
Hate Group Map identifying
active hate groups across the
country; the report listed
31 hate groups in Michigan,
a
6.5-percent
increase
as
compared to the previous
year. The report identifies the
Ann Arbor-based AFLC as an
anti-Muslim hate group. In
response, Nessel and Abulu
announced the establishment
of a hate crimes unit in the
attorney general’s office as
well as a database to document
incidents of hate and bias.
On
March
8,
Nessel
released
an
additional
press
release
officially
establishing the new hate
crimes unit and reaffirming
her commitment to protecting
all organizations’ rights to
freedom of speech. Nessel also
said it was her responsibility
to take action against possible
hate crimes stemming from
offensive or bigoted language.
“When a criminal offense is
committed against a person or
property and it is motivated
by an offender’s bias against
a particular group, then my
office will act,” Nessel said.
The
complaint
contends
that the AFLC is being unfairly
targeted
by
this
policy
directive based on political
views and has suffered injury
to its reputation. The group
claims the policy directive put
forth by Nessel and Arbulu
infringes on their right to free
speech, protected by the First
Amendment, and their rights
to expressive association and
equal protection of the law,
both protected by the 14th
Amendment.
Nessel and Arbulu filed
separate motions to dismiss,
however,
District
Judge
Paul Maloney denied these
motions, meaning the lawsuit
will move on to the discovery
phase.
“Defendants’
general
disagreement
with
the
scope and nature of their
new
initiative
does
not
undermine the effect that
the announcement of the new
policy on AFLC’s reputation
and activities, as established
by the affidavit submitted by
AFLC,” Maloney wrote in the
opinion. “And, assuming the
allegations in the complaint
to be true, AFLC has pled
sufficient
facts
to
state
claims under the First and
Fourteenth Amendments.”
The SPLC is an Alabama-
based,
nonprofit
legal
advocacy
organization
focusing on civil rights. The
group’s oft-cited Intelligence
Report identify and track
hate groups across the nation,
however, the group has faced
recent criticism questioning
the SPLC’s definitions of hate
and extremism and defending
some
of
the
groups
and
individuals targeted by hate
group reports.
The
SPLC
declined
to
comment at the time of this
story, however, the group
has
published
multiple
articles regarding the AFLC’s
anti-Muslim
stance.
The
Intelligence Report defines
“anti-Muslim” hate groups as
those which “exhibit extreme
hostility
toward
Muslims
… and attribute to (Islam’s)
followers an inherent set of
negative traits.” In a profile on
David Yerushalmi, co-founder
and senior counsel of the
AFLC,
the
SPLC
outlines
Yerushalmi’s history of anti-
Muslim activism.
In an article titled “Is
the
War
Against
Terror
Rational?”,
Yerushalmi
condemns Islam.
“We must be prepared to
fight a full-scale war against
all nations and people who
advocate, accommodate, or
acquiesce to the Islamic world
view,”
Yerushalmi
wrote.
“We will never defeat ‘radical
Islam’
without
defeating
Islam itself because they are
one and the same.”
The SPLC cites the AFLC’s
amicus
curiae
brief
from
February
2018
supporting
President Trump’s “extreme
vetting”
travel
policy
as
further
evidence
of
anti-
Muslim hate. The analysis
of the brief draws attention
to misinformation put forth
about Sharia, Islamic law.
“Its religiously-laden terms
such as ‘Islamic radicalism’
and
‘sharia
supremacism’
does little to mask the brief’s
anti-Muslim
agenda,”
the
SPLC writes. “It also makes
the
fundamental
mistake
of
equating
sharia
with
ideological extremism, when
in fact it is merely a set of
guiding principles to living
a moral life set out in the
Qur’an and is akin to how
halacha is practiced among
many
religiously-observant
Jews.”
The
SPLC
further
denounces
the
AFLC’s
American Laws for American
Courts initiative, a legislative
model for bills prohibiting
foreign
laws
in
American
courts, focused specifically on
Sharia “law.” The SPLC points
out that Sharia is not actually
law and that such a protection
is
already
guaranteed
by
the
Constitution.
They
sayconclude that the ALAC
initiative
is
an
attempt
to
promote
unfounded
fear,
linking
anti-Muslim
legislative
rhetoric
to
increasing hate crimes against
American Muslims.
“Driven by hate groups, the
ALAC initiative has created
unfounded
fear,
and
has
sought to demonize Islam and
American Muslims across the
nation through legislation and
rhetoric,” the SPLC writes.
Robert
Muise,
AFLC
co-founder
and
senior
counsel, said he felt confident
about
the
case’s
outcome
following this victory.
“In light of the judge’s
ruling on that motion to
dismiss, I’m quite confident
that we’re going to ultimately
prevail,” Muise said. “And our
ultimate goal is to protect the
rights to freedom of speech
and
right
to
expressive
association, and to prevent
government
officials
from
weaponizing their offices for
political purposes.”
Law School student Kevin
Deutsch
said
he
wasn’t
surprised
the
motions
to
dismiss were denied.
2 — Friday, February 7, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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Roger Ouellette, communications director for the Sanders campaign in Iowa, speaks at the Iowa caucus
Law firm called ‘hate group’ by SPLC
wins round in lawsuit against MI
American Freedom Law Center claims Dana Nessel violated constitutional speech rights
ANGELINA LITTLE
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See SPLC, Page 3