‘RIGHT OUT OF 1984’: Judeo-Christian Law Firm Sues Michigan AG for Attacking Free Speech by Endorsing ‘Hate Group’ Smear
12th November 2025
The American Freedom Law Center is asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to grant oral arguments in its First Amendment lawsuit against Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel for the “irreparable harm” of her endorsing the Southern Poverty Law Center’s claim that AFLC is a “hate group.”
“From the very beginning, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has politicized and weaponized her office and abused her government authority to target political opponents,” AFLC co-founder Robert Muise told The Daily Signal in a statement Wednesday.
“Her use of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s ‘hate group’ list as a matter of public policy to identify organizations, mostly conservative Christian and Jewish organizations, for her propaganda attacks and threats of surveillance are detrimental to the rights and freedoms of individuals in our free society,” Muise added. “Indeed, this is right out of the pages of George Orwell’s famous novel, 1984, and it is unconstitutional.”
The case traces back to a 2019 press release Nessel published, along with Michigan Department of Civil Rights then-Director Agustin Arbulu, announcing a “Hate Crimes Unit” that would “fight against hate crimes and the many hate groups … in our state.” The announcement linked to the SPLC’s list of “hate groups,” which puts conservative and Christian organizations on a “hate map” alongside largely defunct chapters of the Ku Klux Klan.