Free Republic

Damning evidence exists of Attorney General Dana Nessel's hostility toward traditional marriage.ANN ARBOR, Michigan, January 17, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — Watching, listening, tracking, and compiling secret dossiers on dissidents until they are finally accused and prosecuted — these are the police-state tactics one might associate with an authoritarian regime in a World War II movie. Yet, these are the very methods the Thomas More Law Center (TMLC) has found are being used by Michigan attorney general Dana Nessel acting in concert with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights and the Southern Poverty Law Center. On February 19, 2019, the Southern Poverty...

ANN ARBOR, MI – The Thomas More Law Center (“TMLC”), a national nonprofit public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, filed a federal lawsuit yesterday evening in the New Jersey District Court against several officials and teachers of the Chatham Middle School and the School District of the Chathams, located in New Jersey. The lawsuit, claiming several violations of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, was filed on behalf of Libby Hilsenrath and her minor son. Seventh-grade students at Chatham Middle School were forced to endure Islamic propaganda and an explicit call to convert to Islam through...

ANN ARBOR, MI – In a settlement agreement, which reads more like an instrument of surrender, Bernards Township (“Township”), New Jersey officials agreed that, in addition to a $3.5 million payment to Islamic Society of Basking Ridge (“ISBR”), residents and citizens of the Township are prohibited from commenting on “Islam” or “Muslims.” at the upcoming public hearing to approve the settlement. Astonishingly, a federal judge approved the prohibition as a fully enforceable Order of the Court. As a result of this suppression of speech, the Thomas More Law Center (“TMLC”), a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor,...

Two students seeking to start school pro-life clubs in Fargo, North Dakota, are claiming they are victims of unconstitutional discrimination from officials opposed to their cause.According to a complaint letter sent by the Thomas More Society (TMS), a public interest law firm assisting the students, Brigid O’Keefe of Fargo North High School and Katie McPherson of Fargo Davies High School have each spent months attempting to establish pro-life clubs at their schools, to no avail. McPherson first applied to found a club in September 2014, while O’Keefe applied last February. Both had their applications declined, with O’Keefe saying she and other potential club members were...

It was literally one of the most fulfilling events of my life. However, I didn't fully realize it at first. In late 2007, I thought it was time to get my life back on track after becoming totally blind two and a half years ago. Sure, there was my writing. And support of pro-family causes filled up many of my days. Yet there was something missing. However, I was soon to learn what it was. A few years ago, it was suggested I lead a project that would eventually result in a Nativity scene standing in the state Capitol Building...

In the wake of the government shutdown, despite provisions in the Pay Our Military Act, Catholics at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in Georgia are being denied religious services. The Catholic priest who serves this community has been prohibited from even volunteering to celebrate Holy Mass without pay, and was told that if he violated that order, he could be subject to arrest. Protestant services continue to take place. Only Catholic services have been shutdown. This is an astonishing attack on religious freedom by the federal government, and the latest affront towards the military since the beginning of the shutdown....

Officials with the Thomas More Law Center say they have filed a formal complaint challenging the accreditation of the National Defense University after officials there disciplined an instructor for teaching an approved course on Islam. ....... more at URL

ANN ARBOR, MI — On Saturday morning, December 15th, John Satawa with the help of family and friends and the Boy Scouts once again erected the Nativity on a public median in Warren, Michigan. The joyous occasion was the culmination of a four year legal battle in defense of the Nativity waged by the Thomas More Law Center against the County Road Commission and the Freedom From Religion Foundation.While the Nativity was being erected, Warren police controlled traffic as well-wishers gathered, reporters and TV stations conducted interviews, carolers sang Christmas songs, a priest from nearby St Anne’s Catholic Church blessed...

A controversial Nativity scene is on the verge of approval in Arlington Heights, though park district officials say they still want some questions answered from the private group that is requesting the display be installed.  On Friday, officials from the Arlington Heights Park District met with Jim Finnegan of the Illinois Nativity Scene Committee to review his group’s permit application for the Nativity display and to discuss its potential location in North School Park. Park district officials gave Finnegan a list of questions to answer — such as whether the group has insurance for the display — before it is...

ANN ARBOR, MI — After four years of litigation by the Thomas More Law Center, John Satawa will once again be able to erect a Nativity display on a public median in Warren, Michigan—a tradition that his family and neighbors have been observing every Christmas since 1945. Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Law Center, commented: “Every December, militant secularists declare war on Christmas celebrations. This is one battle they lost. And we are extremely pleased that Mr. Satawa and his neighbors will be able to resume their wonderful tradition just in time for this Christmas.” The Nativity...

An Army lieutenant colonel who was on the fast track until Muslim groups complained about a course he taught on radical Islam has a legal foundation in his foxhole. Attorneys for Lt. Col Matthew Dooley, a West Point graduate and highly-decorated combat veteran, was an instructor at the Joint Forces Staff College at the National Defense University, where by most accounts he won praise from students and faculty alike. But when Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey excoriated Dooley during a Pentagon press conference in May, characterizing his course, “Perspectives on Islam and Islamic Radicalism” as objectionable,...

Muslim Influence in Pentagon Prevails; Material on Radical Islam "Purged,” Outstanding Army Officer "Disciplined," TMLC Enters Case ANN ARBOR, MI – The Thomas More Law Center announced today that it is representing U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Dooley, a 1994 Graduate of the U. S. Military Academy at West Point.  In April 2012, LTC Dooley, a highly decorated combat veteran, was publicly condemned by General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and relieved of his teaching assignment because of the negative way Islam was portrayed in an elective course entitled, Perspectives on Islam and Islamic Radicalism. ...

A law firm that defends and promotes Christian heritage and moral values has reportedly become the target of several international Islamic news agencies. The Thomas More Law Center (TMLC) says the Islamic news outlets have recently targeted the firm and its president, Richard Thompson, in articles that claim U.S. Muslims are being unfairly treated. Thompson says the attack is in response to comments he has made about Muslims coercing public schools into giving Islamic students special accommodations that are not afforded to Christian students. "You have this double standard where schools will bend over backwards to accommodate Islamic students and...

    A rare and striking vindication of American free speech principles came this week, setting back those American Muslims who believe that in their own enclaves, sharia-based restrictions on religious freedom should exist. A seminal, if ominous report released May 17, 2011 by the Center for Security Policy described fifty appellate court cases from 23 states which involve conflicts between Islamic law-Sharia-and American state law. Nothwithstanding the delusive mindslaughter on display across America's political spectrum which denies Sharia encroachment in the US, the CSP analysis revealed that, Sharia has been applied or formally recognized in state court decisions, in conflict...

Yesterday, (4/29/11) a Muslim mob of 50, disturbingly reminiscent of their co-religionists across a vast swath of official Islamdom, breached the security cordon at the City Hall in Dearborn, Michigan separating them from their speechifying nemesis, Pastor Terry Jones, breaking a barricade, throwing water bottles and shoes. Fortunately, riot police restored order within minutes and took at least two people into custody. Not surprisingly, this convulsive effort by local Dearborn Muslims to violently suppress "anti-Islamic" free speech was abetted by the craven dhimmitude of a useful idiot politician, Dearborn's mayor John B. O'Reilly, Jr., and worse still, the First...

Friday January 30, 2009 A Super Bowl of Faith as Both Steelers and Cardinal Owners Are Deeply Committed Christians By John-Henry WestenTAMPA, January 30, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Super Bowl XLIII has a tie in to the pro-life movement as one of the members of the Rooney family, which owns the Pittsburgh Steelers, is heavily involved in pro-life activism through the Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbour Michigan.  Brian Rooney, the Law Center's Director of Communications and Development, is also a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers Board of Directors.Brian Rooney commented on Art Rooney Sr., the founder of the Pittsburgh Steelers...

Score this as one for the good guys and a victory for free speech! In the immortal words of Edna Mode: Go! Confront the problem. Fight! Win! FRESNO, Calif. — In a victory for pro-life speech in public school, a federal court entered a judgment Thursday against a California elementary school and three school officials for violating the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights of a 6th grade student who wore a T-shirt opposing abortion. Los Angeles attorney William J. Becker, Jr., of The Becker Law Firm, assisted by the Thomas More Law Center, filed suit after school officials barred...

In what some have described as "police enforcement of Sharia law" at the annual Dearborn Arab International Festival, last Friday night (June 18, 2010), Dearborn Police Officers arrested four Christian missionaries and "illegally confiscated their video cameras which were recording the events surrounding their arrests." Dearborn, Michigan, is one of the most densely populated Arab, Muslim communities in the US. It is estimated that out of 98,000 inhabitants, nearly 30,000 are Arab Muslims. Now comes the news that The Thomas More Law Center, a public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, today announced it is representing all of...

Arguments are scheduled Monday in the 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia on a school district's decision to censor Christmas carols – even holiday melodies without words. Attorneys with the Thomas More Law Center say they will argue to reverse a lower court ruling affirming a policy in the South Orange-Maplewood School District that banned the music after someone complained. The law firm says the school's ban was specifically aimed at preventing Christmas music, including simple instrumentals without words, during holiday concernts. The district had allowed the performance of traditional Christmas music for more than 60 years but...

ANN ARBOR, MI – Nearly four years after the so-called “Haditha Massacre,” an investigation conducted by over 65 NCIS agents (Naval Criminal Investigative Service) ─ the largest investigation in that agency’s history ─ with the expenditure of millions of taxpayer dollars, and prosecution losses at every stage of the criminal process, the government has decided to give up on the criminal prosecution against Marine LtCol Jeffrey Chessani.  Nonetheless, the battle for this loyal Marine officer continues. On Friday, August 28, 2009,  the new general in charge of LtCol Chessani’s case, Marine LtGen George Flynn, Commanding General of the Marine Corps...