Today, AFLC filed a petition for rehearing en banc, asking the full Sixth Circuit to review and reverse a “dangerously wrong” split decision (2 to 1) by a three-judge panel which allowed Muslim violence to suppress the free speech rights of Christians. Â Quoting from a prior federal court decision, AFLC argues in its petition that
[L]iberty is at an end if a police officer may without warrant arrest, not the person threatening violence, but those who are its likely victims merely because the person arrested is engaging in conduct which, though peaceful and legally and constitutionally protected, is deemed offensive and provocative to settled social customs and practices. When that day comes, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, freedom of religion will all be imperiled.
As argued further, “Unfortunately, that day has come, unless the full court reverses the patently erroneous panel decision—a decision which imperils our First Amendment freedoms.”