{{Short description|American lawyer, political activist (b. 1956)}} '''David Yerushalmi''' (born 1956) is an American lawyer and political activist who is the driving counsel behind the anti-sharia movement in the United States.<ref name="Elliott">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/us/31shariah.html?pagewanted=all | work=The New York Times | first=Andrea | last=Elliott | title=The Man Behind the Anti-Shariah Movement | date=July 30, 2011}}</ref> Along with Robert Muise, he is co-founder and senior counsel of the American Freedom Law Center. He is also general counsel to the Center for Security Policy in Washington, D.C., a national security think tank founded by Frank Gaffney described as far-right<ref>{{Cite journal |last=O'Donnell |first=S. Jonathon |date=January 2018 |title=Islamophobic conspiracism and neoliberal subjectivity: the inassimilable society |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0031322X.2017.1414473 |journal=Patterns of Prejudice |language=en |volume=52 |issue=1 |pages=1–23 |doi=10.1080/0031322X.2017.1414473 |s2cid=149212940 |issn=0031-322X|doi-access=free }}</ref> and conspiracist.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Frank Gaffney Jr. |url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/frank-gaffney-jr |access-date=2023-08-15 |website=Southern Poverty Law Center |language=en}}</ref>
An Orthodox Jew from Brooklyn, Yerushalmi has been highly critical of left-wing Jews, "progressive elites", and African Americans, and has been described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as "a key figure in the U.S. anti-Muslim hate movement".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/david-yerushalmi|title=David Yerushalmi|website=Southern Poverty Law Center|access-date=January 30, 2017}}</ref> Yerushalmi has been described as a leader of the counter-jihad movement,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/anxiety/episodes/episode-12-inside-counter-jihad|title=The Counter-Jihad Movement & the Making of a President|date=September 11, 2017|work=WNYC Studios}}</ref> and as Stop Islamization of America's "in-house lawyer".<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2_LsDwAAQBAJ&dq=yerushalmi+Counter-jihad&pg=PA127|title=The Management of Savagery: How America's National Security State Fueled the Rise of Al Qaeda, ISIS, and Donald Trump|first=Max|last=Blumenthal|publisher= Verso Books |year=2020|isbn=9781788732307}}</ref>
==Career==
===Public policy=== In the 1990s, Yerushalmi was of counsel and senior policy research director for the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies, a neoconservative Israeli think tank with offices in Jerusalem and Washington, D. C.<ref>{{cite web|title=Staff: David Yerushalmi, Of Counsel|url=http://www.iasps.org/dybio.htm|publisher=Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies|accessdate=30 January 2012}}</ref> Yerushalmi published an article on sharia-compliant finance Islamic law as a "Black Box" in the Utah Law Review (2008, Issue 3).<ref>{{cite journal|last=Yerushalmi|first=David|title=Shari'ah's "Black Box": Civil Liability and Criminal Exposure Surrounding Shari'ah-Compliant Finance|journal=Utah Law Review|year=2008|volume=2008|issue=3|page=1019|url=http://epubs.utah.edu/index.php/ulr/article/viewFile/81/73|access-date=16 January 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111111033032/http://epubs.utah.edu/index.php/ulr/article/viewFile/81/73|archive-date=11 November 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> Yerushalmi has no formal training in Sharia law.<ref name="Elliott"/>
====American laws for American courts==== Yerushalmi is the principal drafter of the American laws for American courts model legislation, which is an effort to prevent courts from taking foreign or international law into account; the legislation is aimed at banning sharia, Muslim religious law. The legislation has been enacted into law in several states, including Louisiana, Tennessee, Arizona, Kansas, and Oklahoma.<ref>{{cite news|last=Sacirbey|first=Omar|title=Anti-Shariah Movement Gains Success|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/17/anti-shariah-movement-gains-success_n_3290110.html|access-date=29 May 2013|newspaper=Huffington Post|date=17 May 2013}}</ref>
The American Bar Association (ABA) generally opposes such legislation proposed by Yerushalmi because it is "duplicative of safeguards that are already enshrined in federal and state law". Furthermore, the ABA states: "Initiatives that target an entire religion or stigmatize an entire religious community, such as those explicitly aimed at 'Sharia law', are inconsistent with some of the core principles and ideals of American jurisprudence."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gainesville.com/article/20130415/OPINION/130419700 |title=Mark Schlakman: No need for foreign-law bill |publisher=Gainesville.com |access-date=November 7, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lhrtimes.com/2013/06/05/cair-applauds-missouri-govs-veto-of-anti-islam-bill/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130630033042/http://www.lhrtimes.com/2013/06/05/cair-applauds-missouri-govs-veto-of-anti-islam-bill/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 30, 2013 |title=Account Suspended |publisher=Lhrtimes.com |access-date=November 7, 2015 }}</ref>
===Litigation===
====Dearborn missionaries==== Yerushalmi has been involved in filing several lawsuits against the city of Dearborn, Michigan, in response to treatment of Christian missionaries preaching to Muslims at the city's Arab Festival. Members of one group, Acts 17 Apologetics, had been arrested for disturbance of the peace; a jury acquitted them, and Yerushalmi's suit against the city resulted in the latter settling with a public apology and $300,000 in damages.<ref>{{cite news|last=Warikoo|first=Niraj|title=Dearborn paid Christian group $300,000 to settle lawsuit, record shows|url=http://www.freep.com/article/20130524/NEWS02/305240103/Dearborn-lawsuit-Christians-settlement-300-000|access-date=30 May 2013|newspaper=Detroit Free Press|date=24 May 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Warikoo|first=Niraj|title=Dearborn 'regrets' Arab fest arrests, must post apology for 3 years|url=http://www.freep.com/article/20130506/NEWS05/305060101/Dearborn-to-pay-christian-evangelists-to-settle-lawsuit|access-date=30 May 2013|newspaper=Detroit Free Press|date=6 May 2013}}</ref> A judge threw out a similar case Yerushalmi had filed the same year on behalf of a group called Bible Believers; Yerushalmi had sued after the group were asked to leave the festival after speaking for over an hour, due to concerns of public safety and order. The case is currently being appealed to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.freep.com/article/20130514/NEWS02/305140122/Judge-tosses-Arab-Festival-lawsuit-filed-by-Christian-missionary-group |title=Judge tosses Arab Festival lawsuit filed by Christian missionary group | Detroit Free Press |publisher=freep.com |accessdate=2015-11-07}}</ref>
====Bus advertisement controversies==== Yerushalmi has represented the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), an organization founded by Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, in several legal actions against various transportation authorities around the country. The lawsuits stem from transportation authorities' decision not to run proposed advertisements by AFDI, including one advertisement in Detroit that promotes a website recommending "refuge from Islam".<ref>{{cite news|last=Rice|first=Stephanie|title='Anti-Islamic' bus ads appear in major cities|url=https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2010/0728/Anti-Islamic-bus-ads-appear-in-major-cities|access-date=31 January 2012|newspaper=Christian Science Monitor|date=28 July 2010}}</ref>
On January 31, 2012, Yerushalmi's legal group, the American Freedom Law Center (AFLC) filed a request for a preliminary injunction in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York (MTA), seeking to have the MTA run an AFDI "pro-Israel / anti-Jihad" bus advertisement.<ref>{{cite news|last=Klasfeld|first=Adam|title=Polemic Israel Campaign May Head to New York|url=http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/04/04/45329.htm|accessdate=22 June 2012|newspaper=Courthouse News Service|date=4 April 2012}}</ref> On Friday, July 20, 2012, federal judge Paul Engelmayer ruled that the MTA violated the First Amendment rights of AFDI when it rejected their advertisement.<ref>{{cite news|last=Weiser|first=Benjamin|title=M.T.A. Violated Rights of Group, Judge Says|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/21/nyregion/mta-violated-rights-of-pro-israel-group-judge-says.html?_r=2|accessdate=23 July 2012|newspaper=The New York Times|date=20 July 2012}}</ref> In July 2012, Engelmayer issued a final ruling, striking down the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York’s (MTA) "no-demeaning speech" restriction and ordering the MTA to display the advertisement.
The judge’s order converted an earlier preliminary injunction into a permanent injunction, and it declared that the MTA speech regulation violated the First Amendment right to free speech. The judge also awarded FDI nominal damages.<ref>{{cite news|last=Weiser|first=Benjamin|title=M.T.A. Violated Rights of Group, Judge Says|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/21/nyregion/mta-violated-rights-of-pro-israel-group-judge-says.html?_r=2&|accessdate=17 October 2012|newspaper=New York Times|date=20 July 2012}}</ref> Yerushalmi's subsequent effort to get advertisements critical of Islam to run on MTA property failed, after the agency changed its ad policy to prohibit bigoted material, which was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.<ref name="USCA 2d Cir.">{{cite web|title=USCA 2d Cir.|url=https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-2nd-circuit/1727713.html|website=FindLaw|accessdate=21 June 2016}}</ref>
On September 20, the American Freedom Law Center filed a federal lawsuit against the Washington Metro Area Transit Authority (WMATA) after the agency had refused to run similar proposed advertisement. WMATA had refused to run the advertisement "due to the situations [sic] happening around the world at this time", a reference to the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi and other uprisings in the Middle East.<ref>{{cite news|last=Wilber|first=Del|title=Pro-Israel group files federal lawsuit against Metro|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/pro-israel-group-files-federal-lawsuit-against-metro/2012/09/20/10742e6e-0366-11e2-8102-ebee9c66e190_story.html|accessdate=October 18, 2012|newspaper=Washington Post|date=September 20, 2012}}</ref> On October 5, federal judge Rosemary M. Collyer, sitting in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia granted the Law Center's request on behalf of its clients for an injunction to halt WMATA's censorship of the advertisement. Collyer ordered the "Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority [to] display Plaintiffs’ advertisement no later than 5 p.m. on October 8, 2012."<ref>{{cite news|last=Wilber|first=Del|title=Metro ordered to display pro-Israel ads that it worried might incite violence|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/metro-ordered-to-display-pro-israel-ads-that-it-worried-might-incite-violence/2012/10/05/639f1efa-0f2d-11e2-bb5e-492c0d30bff6_story.html|accessdate=October 18, 2012|newspaper=Washington Post|date=October 5, 2012}}</ref>
====Pamela Geller defamation case==== Yerushalmi represented anti-Islam activist Pamela Geller in a $10 million defamation lawsuit filed by Omar Tarazi, the lawyer for Rifqa Bary's parents.<ref>{{cite news|last=Gray|first=Kathy Lynn|title=Bary-case lawyer files $10M defamation lawsuit|url=http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2010/09/07/omar-tarazi-lawsuit-rifqa-bary.html|accessdate=24 July 2012|newspaper=Columbus Dispatch|date=7 September 2010|archive-date=12 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121012171255/http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2010/09/07/omar-tarazi-lawsuit-rifqa-bary.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Welsh-Huggins|first=Andrew|title=Defendants in Lawyer's $10 Million Defamation Suit Cite Free Speech|url=http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202473343138&slreturn=1&hbxlogin=1|accessdate=25 July 2012|newspaper=Associated Press|date=14 October 2010}}</ref> Geller, while blogging about the controversy extensively given her work at the American Freedom Defense Initiative, had criticized Tarazi during the Rifqa Bary litigation, which arose after the 17-year-old Rifqa converted from Islam to Christianity and ran away from her Ohio home in the summer of 2009 to take refuge with Christian friends in Florida. Bary had alleged that her father threatened to murder her in an honor killing.<ref name="FDLE_rprt">{{cite web |url=http://media.myfoxorlando.com/documents/FDLE_RifqaBary.pdf |publisher=Florida Department of Law Enforcement |title=Investigative Summary OR-73-1741 |accessdate=October 16, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110714142625/http://media.myfoxorlando.com/documents/FDLE_RifqaBary.pdf |archive-date=2011-07-14 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The case was settled out of court, with both sides claiming victory, when Geller agreed to remove the posts from her blog in exchange for the case being dropped.<ref>{{cite news|last=Welsh-Huggins|first=Andrew|title=Lawyer vs. blogger dispute settled in Rifqa Bary case|url=http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2011/09/21/geller-tarazi-settle-in-rifqa-bary-case.html|accessdate=25 July 2012|newspaper=Associated Press|date=21 September 2011|archive-date=3 November 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131103120632/http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2011/09/21/geller-tarazi-settle-in-rifqa-bary-case.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
====Challenges to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act==== In July 2014, the American Freedom Law Center sued Barack Obama, alleging that the Obama administration had violated its constitutional duty to "faithfully execute" the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act). On May 15, 2015, the court dismissed the lawsuit for lack of standing.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.americanfreedomlawcenter.org/case/american-freedom-law-center-v-obama/ |title=v. Obama |publisher=American Freedom Law Center |access-date=2015-11-07}}</ref>
In 2014, Yerushalmi and Muise took over the appeal of ''Cutler v. United States Department of Health and Human Services'', another constitutional challenge to the ACA. The challenger in that case, Jeffrey Cutler, had a personal (but not religious) objection to the ACA's requirement that he buy insurance, and "filed suit challenging the religious exemption in the Affordable Care Act as an unconstitutional establishment of religion." The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected Cutler's claims, holding that his Establishment Clause claim failed on the merits and that he lacked standing to pursue an Equal Protection Clause claim.<ref>''[https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=3960135394723375531 Cutler v. U.S. Dep't of Health & Human Servs.]'', 797 F.3d 1173, 1179. (D.C. Cir. 2015).</ref>
On 2012, Yerushalmi and Muise of the AFLC represented Priests for Life (a Catholic anti-abortion organization) in a suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York challenging the contraceptive mandate provision of the ACA. The case was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Frederic Block for lack of ripeness because the government stated that the new implementing regulations would not be finalized until August 1, 2013. However, according to Yerushalmi, Priests for Life did secure a stipulation of non-enforcement from the government as a result of AFLC's motion for a preliminary injunction.<ref name="bloomberg1">{{cite news | last = Jeffrey | first = Don | title = Priests for Life's Contraceptive Mandate Suit Dismissed | newspaper = Bloomberg | date = Apr 15, 2013 |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-15/priests-for-life-s-contraceptive-mandate-suit-dismissed.html }}</ref>
====Constitutional challenge to bailout of AIG==== Yerushalmi, as co-counsel, filed a federal lawsuit in 2009 against the U.S. Department of Treasury and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, challenging a portion of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 that appropriated $40 billion to fund the federal government’s majority ownership interest in AIG. The lawsuit argued that the use of taxpayer dollars to fund Sharia-based loans made by AIG subsidiaries violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. While federal Judge Lawrence P. Zatkoff rejected the request by the U.S. Department of Justice to dismiss the lawsuit, he ultimately granted summary judgment for the government in January 2011, finding that the religious involvement did not achieve the "excessive entanglement" required under earlier rulings. The decision was appealed to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals;<ref>{{cite web|title=American Freedom Law Center Attorneys to Argue Before Federal Appellate Court that AIG Bailout Was Unconstitutional |url=http://www.americanfreedomlawcenter.org/press/13/american-freedom-law-center-attorneys-to-argue-before-federal-appellate-court-that-aig-bailout-was-unconstitutional.html |work=Press release |publisher=American Freedom Law Center |access-date=8 February 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130602122526/http://www.americanfreedomlawcenter.org/press/13/american-freedom-law-center-attorneys-to-argue-before-federal-appellate-court-that-aig-bailout-was-unconstitutional.html |archive-date=2 June 2013 }}</ref> on June 1, 2012, the Court of Appeals dismissed the case, ruling that the plaintiff did not have standing.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-6th-circuit/1602111.html |title=Murray V. United States Department Of Treasury | Findlaw |publisher=Caselaw.findlaw.com |date=2012-06-01 |accessdate=2015-11-07}}</ref> On October 12, 2012, Yerushalmi and the American Freedom Law Center filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the United States Supreme Court, asking the Court to review the appellate court's decision, which the Court denied.
==Allegations of racism== The Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center have described Yerushalmi's views as racist, anti-immigrant, and anti-Islamic. He stated, in a 2006 essay, that "most of the fundamental differences between the races are genetic". Yerushalmi is against what he views as a politically correct culture that doesn't openly discuss the reasons "the founding fathers did not give women or black slaves the right to vote."<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/us/31shariah.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 | work=The New York Times | first=Andrea | last=Elliott | title=David Yerushalmi, the Man Behind the Anti-Shariah Movement | date=30 July 2011}}</ref> According to the SPLC, Yerushalmi has called blacks "the most murderous of peoples", and reportedly once called for undocumented immigrants to be placed in "special criminal camps", detained for three years, and then deported.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/profiles/david-yerushalmi#.UalaAKVfmCI |title=David Yerushalmi | Southern Poverty Law Center |publisher=Splcenter.org |accessdate=2015-11-07}}</ref> Yerushalmi has denied ever having made racist statements. In 2011, he was listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as one of 10 people in the United States' ''Anti-Muslim Inner Circle''.<ref>{{cite web|author=Robert Steinback |url=http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2011/summer/the-anti-muslim-inner-circle |title=The Anti-Muslim Inner Circle | Southern Poverty Law Center |publisher=Splcenter.org |date=2011-06-17 |accessdate=2015-11-07}}</ref>
That same year, the Center for American Progress (CAP), a progressive Washington-based think-tank, published the widely-read report ''Fear, Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America'', disclosing a network of anti-Islamic and anti-Muslim activists and campaigners, and their financiers, among which Yerushlami has significant place. The report was published as an online presentation ''Islamophobia Network''.<ref name="Fear-Inc-Islamophobia-Network">{{cite web|title=Fear Inc. - The Islamophobia Network|url=https://islamophobianetwork.com|website=islamophobianetwork.com|publisher=The Islamophobia Network|accessdate=24 January 2017|date=2011}}</ref> In 2015, CAP published an updated version, ''"Fear, Inc. 2.0"''.<ref name="Fear-Inc-2.0-Center-American-Progress">{{cite web|title=Fear, Inc. 2.0 – Center for American Progress|url=https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/religion/reports/2015/02/11/106394/fear-inc-2-0/|website=www.americanprogress.org|date=11 February 2015 |publisher=CAP - Center for American Progress|accessdate=24 January 2017}}</ref>
He has recently been called one of three core activists and theorists of bigotry that flourished against Muslims and immigrants during the two Obama administrations.<ref>Noureddine al-Haimoud, Melouka Arabi,[https://doi.org/10.1080/13602004.2022.2132451 'Islamophobia Network in the United States During the Obama Administration: Structure, Strategies and Objectives,'] Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 23 October 2022 pp.1-13</ref>
==References== {{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yerushalmi, David}} Category:1956 births Category:Living people Category:American Orthodox Jews Category:American counter-jihad activists Category:Lawyers from Washington, D.C. Category:Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law alumni Category:Place of birth missing (living people)