Who Is Robert Muise?

My VIP for this week is Robert Muise, Co-Founder and Senior Counsel of American Freedom Law Center. This is a Judeo-Christian law firm that “filed a lawsuit challenging what the law firm called the state’s ‘Orwellian’ violation of its First Amendment rights.” The initial proceedings took place, and then “the case has been delayed since 2021.” Tyler O’Neil at The Daily Signal wrote the following about the case. 

“The U.S. Constitution does not permit the Michigan attorney general and the Michigan Department of Civil Rights to weaponize their government offices to target political opponents,” American Freedom Law Center Co-Founder and Senior Counsel Robert Muise told The Daily Signal on Friday. He stood by earlier comments calling the Hate Crimes Unit Orwellian.

In 2019, when he filed the lawsuit, Muise summarized Nessel’s policy this way: “We’re going to keep files on you.’ It’s Orwellian. It’s Big Brother. It’s the thought police.”

The American Freedom Law Center brought three claims against Nessel and Arbulu: violation of free speech rights under the First Amendment, violation of expressive association rights under the First Amendment, and violation of equal protection as guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment…..

The case proceeded in 2019, leading to depositions and discovery until both the center and the defendants filed dueling motions for “summary judgment” – asking the court to resolve the case in their favor – in January 2021.

The case remined in limbo for four years….

“On March 3, 2025, I filed a notice with the court, as I have done several other times, informing the court that our motion for summary judgment has been pending for four years and is ripe for a decision,” Muise told The Daily Signal. “In response, the court finally granted a hearing, which is scheduled for June 2.”

“As we demonstrated in our court filings, the defendants’ official endorsement of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s list of hate groups constitutes a concrete and particular reputational injury to my organization, the American Freedom Law Center, which is one of the many conservative groups wrongly targeted by the largely discredited SPLC,” the attorney said. “It is our hope that the court will grant our motion and stop this government attack of individuals and organizations based on their political and religious views.”

“This type of lawfare, which is engaged in by the Left, has to stop,” Muise added….