The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals voted 10-4 to uphold a Christian group’s right to demonstrate in 2012 at a Michigan Arab-American festival with objectionable anti-Muslim symbols, signs and statements. To preserve peace, Wayne County sheriffs removed the demonstrators when they were under assault. The California demonstrators who call themselves Bible Believers sued claiming the sheriff’s department failed to protect them and their First Amendment right to express their opinions. (Detroit Free Press, October 29, 2015, by Tresa Baldas)
The court wrote that the Bible Believers were not seeking to incite violence, that the Sheriff did not provide sufficient forces to protect them, and that law enforcement officers who were at the scene did little to ward off assaults. (Courthouse News Service, October 29, 2015, by David Wells)