Month in Review – April 2018

AFLC_Month-in-review_smallBanner (3)Here are the highlights for April 2018:

* On April 10, we announced our free speech victory in a lawsuit we filed against the City of Westland, Michigan on behalf of Pastor Dan McGhee, a pro-life demonstrator who challenged the constitutionality of the City’s disturbing the peace ordinance.

City police officers were using the ordinance to restrict the speech of pro-life demonstrators who engage in their First Amendment protected activity outside of the Northland Family Planning Center, a notorious abortion facility located along Ford Road in Westland, Michigan.

A federal judge sitting in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan signed an Order permanently enjoining the enforcement of the ordinance as applied to the “expressive activity of pro-life demonstrators.”  Pursuant to the Order, the City also paid AFLC $28,000 in attorneys’ fees.

* On April 12, we filed our opening brief in the Macomb County Circuit Court, appealing the convictions of our clients, four pro-lifers who were involved in a “Red Rose Rescue” at the Northland abortion center in the City of Sterling Heights, Michigan.  The brief sets forth our legal arguments as to why the judge committed reversible error by not allowing the pro-lifers the defense of necessity and the defense of others, thereby depriving them of their due process rights and requiring a new trial with a properly instructed jury.

* On April 13, we disclosed our experts in the Urth Caffe litigation, in which seven women claimed they were subjected to religious discrimination when the Urth Caffe staff asked them to leave after the women refused to abide by the café’s seating policy.  The women later made the fraudulent claim that they were evicted from the cafĂ© because they wore hijabs—Islamic head coverings worn by some Muslim women.  The lawsuit was initiated by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim Brotherhood/Hamas front group operating in the U.S.  This litigation against Urth Caffe, like other litigation of its kind, is part of the Brotherhood’s “civilizational jihad” to destroy America from within by exploiting and using its laws promoting liberty and equality against patriotic citizens and companies via lawfare.  AFLC, however, went on the offensive and filed cross-claims for trespass against the seven Muslim women, and the judge denied their motion to dismiss the cross-claims.

After more than a year of discovery, including depositions of all of the witnesses and production of thousands of documents, AFLC has demonstrated that there is not a shred of evidence of any discrimination.  In fact, the security tapes show just the opposite.  Urth Caffe’s seating policy was applied fairly and without regard to race, religion, or nationality.  AFLC has filed a motion for summary judgment asking the Court to throw out the discrimination case while allowing Urth Caffe’s cross-claims for trespass against the seven women to continue to trial.

Our forensic economics expert is prepared to testify that the women’s trespass caused between $500,000 to $1,000,000 in damages.

* On April 20, a federal judge sitting in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan issued an important ruling in favor of our client, Kimberly Thames, a pro-life demonstrator who was unlawfully arrested and jailed for 49 hours based on a facially bogus claim by an abortion center security guard that she made a bomb threat.  The ruling denies the City police officers’ request to dismiss Thames’ constitutional claims, thereby sending the case to a jury.  In addition to compensatory damages for the pain and suffering endured by Thames, we are also seeking punitive damages against certain officers.

* On April 26, we filed Urth Caffe’s reply brief in support of the motion for summary judgment.  The hearing on the motion is scheduled for May 29.  If we prevail on the motion, the only thing left in this lawsuit will be Urth Caffe’s trespass claim against the seven women, who will rue the day they ever allowed CAIR to press them into duty for the Muslim Brotherhood by filing this bogus lawsuit.

* On April 29, we filed a motion for sanctions against the seven Muslim women Plaintiffs in the Urth Caffe litigation and their lawyer for making false and bad faith representations to the Court and wasting Urth Caffe and our time and resources.

* We continue with court appearances, depositions, briefs, and motion practice in many other cases as well.

Thank you for your prayers and financial support.  We couldn’t do what we do without them!