Here are highlights for May:
* On May 1, AFLC Co-Founder and Senior Counsel Robert Muise was the keynote speaker for an event held by a conservative Catholic Church in South Dakota.
Muise discussed the Left’s attack on our faith and freedoms and what AFLC is doing to not only defend our freedoms, but to go on the offensive to advance them. The event was well attended.
* On May 1, we filed a notice of appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (Washington, D.C.), seeking review of the district court’s order denying our request for a preliminary injunction on behalf of a Navy SEAL.
This lawsuit is challenging the military’s vaccine mandate on behalf of four Navy SEALs, who object to the mandate on religious grounds.
* On May 5, we filed a motion for jury instructions on the defense of others and necessity in our defense of four courageous pro-life rescuers who entered an abortion center in Flint, Michigan in June 2019.
The jury trial for this case will commence on June 28Â in the 7th Judicial Circuit Court in Flint.
* On May 5, we had yet another hearing in the CHI case, this time in federal court. In this case, we are challenging Genoa Township’s denial of Catholic Healthcare International’s (CHI) land use application to build a modest chapel and prayer campus on its 40-acre property located within the Township.
The Township’s denial is a clear violation of CHI’s constitutional rights, and it is a violation of CHI’s rights protected by the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), a federal law that prohibits land use decisions that substantially burden religious exercise.
Following the hearing, the court granted our motion to file a supplemental pleading, and it ordered the parties to file additional briefing related to our pending request for a preliminary injunction.
More specifically, the court requested additional briefing on whether the Rooker-Feldman doctrine applies to CHI’s request for a preliminary injunction. Rooker-Feldman is a doctrine that is often misapplied when there are ongoing and parallel federal court and state court proceedings. Federal judges often rely, incorrectly, on this doctrine as justification for not ruling on claims.
* On May 9, we filed a “Supplemented First Amended Complaint” on behalf of CHI in our lawsuit against Genoa Township.
This pleading brings the case “up to date,” adding allegations of harm that have occurred since the filing of the original complaint last June.
* On May 12, we appeared on behalf of a pro-life rescuer who engaged in a recent rescue at an abortion center located in Southfield, Michigan. The rescuer is charged with two misdemeanor offenses (trespassing and resisting an officer).
The court set the case for a jury trial on August 16.
* On May 16, we appeared on behalf of five pro-life rescuers who were involved in the same rescue at the abortion center in Southfield, Michigan.
The six rescuers will be tried jointly on August 16.
* On May 25, we filed our opening brief in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit arguing that the district court erroneously dismissed our client’s lawsuit alleging that President Biden and Twitter conspired to have Twitter censor our client’s speech on behalf of the government in violation of the First and Fifth Amendments.
In this lawsuit, Dr. Colleen Huber, a licensed naturopathic medical doctor dared to cite news articles suggesting bad outcomes attributed to COVID vaccines in Israel and that these outcomes were underreported by the Israeli government.
The opening brief argues quite emphatically that the district court, located in Twitter’s backyard, bent over backwards to rationalize its dismissal of our class action lawsuit by simply ignoring the factual record of an outright conspiracy to have Twitter act as President Biden’s government censor by permanently shutting down Dr. Huber’s Twitter account.
* On May 25, we filed our supplemental brief on the application of the Rooker-Feldman doctrine in our case filed against Genoa Township on behalf of CHI.
* On May 25, we filed multiple “case opening” documents in the D.C. Circuit in support of the appeal of the district court’s denial of our request for a preliminary injunction filed on behalf of a Navy SEAL who objects to the vaccine mandate on religious grounds.
* On May 26, Muise argued our motion for jury instructions on the defense of others and necessity. We filed the motion on behalf of four pro-life rescuers who are facing misdemeanor and felony charges for engaging in a rescue in Flint, Michigan in June 2019.
The judge denied the motion, but left open the possibility of renewing it following the presentation of evidence at the trial.
Thank you for your prayers and financial support. We couldn’t do what we do without them!