I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
The Thomas More Law Center, representing the plaintiffs in a case against the SMART bus system in the Metro Detroit area for refusing to air an anti-Islam advertisement on the side of their buses, has asked a federal district court for a preliminary injunction in the case pending trial.
The ad in question, sponsored by the group American Freedom Defense Initiative, says:
“Fatwa on your head? Is your family or community threatening you? Leaving Islam? Got questions? Get Answers!”
It also contains the address of the website RefugeFromIslam.com. SMART refused to run the ad and AFDI filed suit in federal court. The motion for a preliminary injunction notes that SMART is a government agency that has established a public forum by allowing other organizations to take out political and religious ads on their buses:
Pursuant to its express policy and its established practice, SMART permits a wide variety of commercial, noncommercial, public-service, public-issue, political, and religious advertisements on the outside of its vehicles. For example, SMART permitted the Detroit Area Coalition of Reason, an atheist organization, to place an anti-religion advertisement on its vehicles. The atheist advertisement stated the following: “Don’t believe in God? You are not alone.” The advertisement also listed the website (DetroitCoR.org) of the organization.
The plaintiffs are almost certainly correct. Once a public forum is established, as it clearly has been here, the government cannot engage in viewpoint discrimination and pick and choose which messages may be expressed and which may not. Here is the full text of the motion filed:
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