ANN ARBOR, MI - The Michigan Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of the city of Ann Arbor in a Freedom of Information Act dispute with conservative pundit Debbie Schlussel.
The court, on Tuesday, March 26, reaffirmed Washtenaw County Trial Court Judge Timothy Connor's choice to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Schlussel in 2017 in connection to false reports of hate crimes in the city.
Schlussel wanted the city to release the name of a Muslim woman who, in 2016, claimed a man threatened to light her on fire if she didn’t remove her hijab and said she believed the attacker was a Trump supporter. Police determined the report was false, but prosecutors declined to charge the woman, saying it wasn’t in the interest of justice.
The woman’s name was redacted, along with other information, from the police report Schlussel obtained from Ann Arbor police through the Freedom of Information Act. Though the city attorney’s office cited privacy and medical exemptions in the act as reasoning for the redactions, Schlussel claimed the move was politically motivated and an attempt by the city to implement Sharia law.
Connor threw out Schlussel’s subsequent lawsuit in October 2017, after reviewing an un-redacted version of the police report, City Attorney Stephen Postema previously said.
The Court of Appeals supported the move Tuesday, disagreeing with Schlussel that Michigan’s FOIA law permits disclosures identifying someone found to have committed a crime, even if that person was not charged.
Public interest didn’t outweigh the unwarranted invasion of privacy, because the release of the woman’s name, address and medical history would not contribute to public understanding of the operations of the government, the court ruled.
Because prosecutors, not police, make the decision whether to charge a case, further release of information by the Ann Arbor Police Department can't show existence of any preferential treatment, the court said.
The Court of Appeals said AAPD treated the case in the same way it treated a false hate crime claim made by a non-Muslim woman, who was charged and had her name released through FOIA.
"Plaintiff asserts that there 'could be' any number of reasons that justify her claim, including abuse of prosecutorial discretion or some sort of coverup," the court said in an unpublished opinion released to The Ann Arbor News.
"However, plaintiff points to no record evidence that supports these allegations. Plaintiff has the relevant information she appears to have sought: the complainant is a Muslim woman, and the woman who was prosecuted for making a false claim is not."
City Attorney Postema celebrated the decision in statement released Tuesday.
"Judge Connors correctly applied the balancing test for privacy under FOIA, as the Court of Appeals recognized," he said in the statement. "The City (sic) will always vigorously defend against such claims.”
For their part, Schlussel and her attorney, West Bloomfield-based Daniel Lehman, vowed to fight the decision and appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court by the end of the week.
Lehman said he was "shocked" by the ruling, while Schlussel called it "outrageous."
"I don’t understand why they are so intent of keeping this person's name a secret," she said. "Is it because she's not a U.S. citizen and if she were prosecuted, she'd be deported?"
She believes religion is a factor, based on the non-Muslim woman being charged and named.
Schlussel also called the release of the decision Tuesday ironic, given the national news the same day that charges would be dropped against "Empire" star Jussie Smollett. Smollett was accused of staging an attack and falsely claiming to be a victim of a hate crime.
"I think this woman defamed (President) Donald Trump and those of us who voted for the president by claiming that Donald Trump supporters threatened her life when in fact it just never happened, just like Jussie Smollett did, and I think that the world needs to know her name just like they know Jussie Smollett's name," she said. "…These people that perpetrate hate crime hoaxes have to be brought to justice and part of that process is releasing their names and the complete police reports."
Schlussel is an attorney and pundit who has worked with various national media outlets.
City attorneys, in court filings, have called her an anti-Muslim blogger and pundit who "attacks Muslims and the Muslim religion."
The office accused her of using the case to “prey upon a specified person as well as the Muslim public through tactics of fear and prejudice and she is using her website as an anti-Muslim Internet offering plate.”