We are pleased to report to you each month our significant activities and accomplishments, all of which are made possible by your generous support.  Here are the highlights for June 2014:
- On June 5, AFLC filed its petition for en banc (full court) review of an adverse ruling by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in the case of Captain Paul Fields, a Tulsa, Oklahoma, police officer who was summarily punished for objecting on religious grounds to an order mandating attendance at an Islamic proselytizing event held at a local mosque. On June 16, the court denied AFLC’s petition. AFLC will be asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case; that petition is due September 15.
- On June 16, AFLC filed its opening brief in the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, requesting that the federal appeals court reverse two lower court decisions that permitted the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) to censor the display of pro-Israel / anti-jihad advertisements on its public buses.  The MBTA rejected the advertisements, claiming that they demeaned and disparaged Muslims.
- On June 19, Senior Counsel Robert Muise appeared on Real News on The Blaze television network to discuss the proposed immigration bill in New York and the legal challenges this bill will likely face in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling on Arizona’s SB 1070. As a note, AFLC filed a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in support of Arizona’s effort to protect its citizens from rampant illegal immigration and the violent crime often associated with it.
- On June 20, AFLC sent a letter on behalf of more than 500 Americans (who had responded directly to AFLC’s call to action) to Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), the Chairman of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, requesting that he issue a public statement demanding that President Barack Obama immediately end his tyrannical executive orders, which trample upon Congress’ constitutionally-mandated powers and seriously threaten our constitutional form of government.
- On June 24, a U.S. Magistrate Judge sitting in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York issued his “report and recommendation” in AFLC’s lawsuit filed on behalf of Joelle Silver, a public school teacher and devout Christian who was forced by school district officials to censor her personal speech and remove all religious content from her classroom under threat of being fired. The magistrate judge issued a mixed report, recommending that the U.S. District Court Judge assigned to the case grant in part and deny in part the school district’s motion to dismiss the case.
- Also on June 24, Senior Counsel Robert Muise and David Yerushalmi joined twenty-nine former government officials, public policy experts, and other national leaders to sign a letter that was delivered to Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, expressing appreciation for his efforts to get to the bottom of yet another scandal festering in Obama’s Department of Homeland Security – the willful allowance of jihadist and jihadist sympathizers to cross the U.S. border.
- Throughout June, AFLC continued to litigate its case defending the Center for Security Policy and others who were sued by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) for conducting an undercover operation that exposed this Muslim Brotherhood group’s nefarious activities. AFLC filed two motions in support of its continuing request that the federal judge hearing the case grant summary judgment in AFLC’s favor on all of CAIR’s claims. (In a blow to CAIR, the court previously denied CAIR’s motion for summary judgment in its entirety).
- On June 30, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. and Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. v. Burwell, ruling in favor of the Christian businesses that challenged the constitutionality of the Obamacare contraception mandate as applied against for-profit businesses.  The Supreme Court ruling will ensure a victory in AFLC’s case that is pending in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., challenging the mandate on behalf of an Ohio-based, family run business, Johnson Welded Products, Inc., and its owner, Ms. Lilli Johnson, a Catholic who objects to the mandate.