This past month was another incredibly busy month for the American Freedom Law Center (AFLC) — all thanks to your generous support. Accordingly, AFLC is pleased to report to you our significant activities and accomplishments for July 2013:
- On July 1, Omar Alomari, a Muslim and former “Multicultural Relations” officer at the Ohio Department of Homeland Security (OHS), dismissed his “defamation” lawsuit that he filed in Ohio state court against several national security experts for publishing reports about his role as a former high-ranking official in the Jordanian government and his ties to terrorist organizations. In May 2013, AFLC filed a motion to dismiss Alomari’s lawsuit on behalf of the security experts. The motion demonstrated that the lawsuit lacked merit and should be dismissed by the court.
- On July 1, the King County Metro Transit authority in Seattle, Washington, announced that it agreed to run a pro-Israel advertisement on its public transportation vehicles after AFLC threatened to sue the agency on behalf of the advertisement’s sponsors, the Freedom Defense Initiative (FDI), and its executive directors, Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer. The proposed advertisement stated, “The Palestinian Authority Is Calling For A Jew-Free State. Equal Rights for Jews.”
- On July 5, AFLC filed its opening brief in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, asking the court to overturn a lower court’s dismissal of a civil rights lawsuit brought by several Christian evangelists who were violently attacked by a hostile mob of Muslims while preaching at an Arab festival last year in Dearborn, Michigan. Dearborn has the largest Muslim population in the United States. Video of the Muslim assault went viral on YouTube.
- On July 9, AFLC filed a motion for summary disposition in the Ingham County Circuit Court, seeking to dismiss a defamation lawsuit filed by former Michigan State Representative Lisa Brown — a liberal and staunch supporter of abortion — against her former legislative assistant, Ericah Caughey. AFLC is defending Caughey in this lawsuit, which alleges that Caughey made defamatory statements about Brown in recent political campaign videos. The statements related to Brown’s abrupt firing of Caughey in 2009 while Caughey was pregnant.
- Litigation continues in AFLC’s legal challenge against the Detroit-area transportation authority — the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART) — for refusing to display a “Leaving Islam” religious freedom advertisement on its buses.  On July 12, AFLC filed its reply in support of its motion to compel discovery in light of SMART’s decision to withhold relevant information pertaining to its censorship of our clients’ advertisement because SMART’s lawyers claim the information is attorney-client privileged.  On July 26, AFLC Senior Counsel Robert J. Muise presented argument at a hearing in federal court, contending that SMART’s privilege was waived because they already produced documents similar to those requested without raising the privilege.