| |
Media
Contact for AFSC:
Alexis Moore,
Media Director
|
Media
Contact for ADC:
Abed A. Ayoub,
Esq., Legal Director
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DEFENDING FREE SPEECH ON
BEHALF OF THE
DISENFRANCHISED
Arab-American
and Quaker groups file suit to challenge restrictions on their
rights to advocate.
WASHINGTON, DC
and PHILADELPHIA, PA (September 5, 2012) The American-Arab
Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and the American Friends
Service Committee (AFSC) have joined a lawsuit challenging the
federal government’s restrictions on their First Amendment
rights to engage in “coordinated advocacy” with Muhammad A.
Salah. Muhammad Salah, a U.S. citizen living in Chicago, is
the only U.S. citizen residing in the United States who is
currently labeled a “Specially Designated Terrorist” by the
U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control
(OFAC). Once an individual is so labeled, any person or
organization is prohibited from engaging in coordinated speech
with him, even if only to express concerns about the
government’s conduct.
AFSC, a Quaker
peace and social justice organization, and ADC, the grassroots
Arab-American civil rights and civil liberties organization,
joined in a lawsuit filed today by lawyers from Hughes, Socol,
Piers, Resnick, and Dym; the Center for Constitutional Rights;
and the Peoples Law Office to challenge the government’s power
to impose arbitrary restrictions on our First Amendment rights
to follow our conscience and raise public awareness about
government actions we believe to be unjust.
ADC and AFSC
cannot now coordinate their activities with Muhammad Salah to
publicly criticize the government or advocate for redress
without violating the law. The organizations are
concerned that the government’s treatment of Salah amounts to
unnecessarily sweeping and arbitrary punitive actions that are
an egregious affront to the basic values of justice, but AFSC
and ADC are restricted in their ability to so advocate in
coordination with Salah by the very breadth of the
government’s restrictions.
In December
2011, a unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled
that these speech restrictions violate the First Amendment,
but OFAC has not amended its regulations to conform to that
ruling, and therefore ADC and AFSC are forced to bring this
suit, simply so that they can express their opinions in a
coordinated way.
“It is more
than alarming that a year after the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court
of Appeals found that OFAC’s prohibitions violate the First
Amendment in a similar case, the agency has yet to change its
regulations. We must not stand by while the government
uses tactics of fear to deny basic rights to Arab-American
organizations and the members they represent,” says Abed A.
Ayoub, ADC Legal Director.
“AFSC brings
this case as a last resort, challenging a government agency
that seeks to strip our First Amendment rights through the
arbitrary use of a demonizing label,” says Shan Cretin, AFSC’s
General Secretary (chief executive).
“Over nine
decades working for peace, we have seen what can happen when a
government is allowed to cultivate a climate of fear to
justify denying basic rights to some scapegoated
group—Japanese-Americans, Native Americans, Jews, civil rights
advocates, or political dissidents. AFSC has
consistently resisted such attempts, and will continue to do
so,” says Shan Cretin.
AFSC and ADC
consider this appeal to the courts necessary to uphold their
First Amendment rights to advocate on matters of conscience.
As this case proceeds, please check for updates on
www.afsc.org and
www.adc.org.
For more
specifics on Muhammad Salah’s case, visit http://ccrjustice.org/ ourcases/current-cases/salah- v.-u.s.-department-of-treasury .
NOTE TO
EDITORS:
The
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), which is
non-profit, non-sectarian and non-partisan, is the largest
grassroots Arab-American civil rights and civil liberties
organization in the United States. It was founded in 1980 by
former Senator James Abourezk. ADC has a national network of
chapters and members in all 50 states.
Throughout its
95 year history, the American Friends Service Committee has
worked for peace by addressing the root causes of violence –
discrimination, disenfranchisement, and lack of economic
opportunities. AFSC has promoted dialogue between Christians
and Muslims and provided programs to combat the Islamophobia
and anti-Arab discrimination that has spread through our
country and influenced our nation’s policies since
9/11.
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