Controversial plans to open a mosque in a former school building in West Bloomfield moved a step closer to reality Friday with a decision by the Michigan Court of Appeals. The appeals court upheld a lower court ruling that found the sale of the former Eagle Elementary to the Islamic Cultural Association was proper.

The Court of Appeals said plaintiffs Melvyn Sternfeld and Eugene Greenstein, West Bloomfield residents who both opposed the sale, failed to prove that they would be harmed by the transaction. "Sternfeld's vague and speculative affidavit does not establish his standing to pursue declaratory and injunctive relief," the three-judge panel said in its ruling.

It wasn't known whether Sternfeld will appeal the decision to the Michigan Supreme Court. His attorney, Robert Davis, wasn't immediately available for comment.

In its three-page ruling, the three-judge panel wrote that Sternfeld never asserted in court filings that the sale of the school to the ICA would have an impact, negative or otherwise, on his home, life or activities "because of close proximity" to the former school. "There is no injury, other than a hypothetical one," said the appeals court.

The ICA wants to convert the former school into a mosque and cultural center, which would be the first to be located in the township. The building was sold by Farmington Public Schools for $1.1 million in June 2011.

But some West Bloomfield residents don't want to live so close to a mosque and Sternfeld and Greenstein tried to stop the sale by filing a lawsuit in Oakland County Circuit Court. A Circuit judge dismissed the case.

Detroit News, 21 September 2012

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A federal judge in Manhattan ruled on Friday that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority violated the First Amendment rights of a pro-Israel group when it rejected an advertisement the group wanted to place on city buses on grounds that they contained demeaning language.

The group, the American Freedom Defense Initiative, had proposed an ad that said, "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man." Then, between two Stars of David, the ad said: "Support Israel. Defeat Jihad."

The transportation authority said the ad violated its prohibition on ads that demeaned individuals or groups on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin and five other specific categories. The group was given the opportunity to revise the ad, but it refused, and claimed in a lawsuit that the agency's "no demeaning" language restriction was unconstitutional.

The judge, Paul A. Engelmayer of Federal District Court, ruled that the rejected ad was "not only protected speech – it is core political speech," expressing a "pro-Israel perspective on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict" and implicitly calling "for a pro-Israel U.S. foreign policy with regard to that conflict." As such, the judge held, the ad "is afforded the highest level of protection under the First Amendment."

Pamela Geller, executive director of the group that sought to place the ad, called the decision "a victory for freedom-loving people."

Judge Engelmayer said he would delay the effect of his order for 30 days, to allow the transportation authority to consider its appellate options and alternatives to the current rule.

New York Times, 20 July 2012

A victory for "freedom-loving people"? More like a victory for mindless bigots. The judge conceded that the MTA had "reasonably read" Geller's ad as referring to Muslims as "savages". But he ruled that it was a violation of the First Amendment for the authority to prevent the public expression of such views. Perhaps some neo-Nazi group will now take advantage of this ruling to buy adverts describing African Americans or Jews as savages. Would that be a victory for freedom-loving people too?

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