Islamic Society of Arlington, Texas v. Kaufman [1]

On October 12, 2007, the Islamic Society of Arlington, Texas, and several other Islamic organizations sued Joe Kaufman for libel and intentional infiction of emotional distress in Texas state court. In addition to seeking libel damages, the plaintiffs asked the court to prevent Kaufman from threatening, harming, or inciting violence against them.

Kaufman is the chairman of Americans Against Hate, an organization that describes itself as a "civil rights organization and terrorism watchdog group." Kaufman published an article on the FrontPage Magazine [2] website calling for a protest of "Muslim Family Day" at Six Flags Over Texas, an amusement park in Arlington, Texas. In the course of the article, Kaufman claimed that two organizations co-sponsoring the event had ties to radical Islamic groups abroad, including Al-Qaeda. Neither of the two organizations mentioned in the article sued Kaufman.

The day the lawsuit was filed, the court issued a temporary restraining order against Kaufman, enjoining him from threatening or harming anyone associated with the Muslim Family Day event. The protest at Muslim Family Day, led by Kaufman, took place without incident. Weeks later, the court granted a temporary injunction forbidding Kaufman from threatening or causing bodily injury to the plaintiffs.

Update:

6/25/2009 - The Court of Appeals for the Second District of Texas reversed [3] the trial court's denial of Kaufman's  motion for summary judgment and rendered judgment in his favor. The court found that the article was not "of and concerning" the plaintiff organizations as a matter of law. 

In deciding the appeal, the appellate court also held that Kaufman was entitled to take advantage of Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 51.014(a)(6) [4], which allows "a member of the electronic or print media" to make an interlocutory appeal from an order denying a motion for summary judgment. The court rejected the plaintiffs' argument that Kaufman could not rely on the statute because he only published on the Internet.

7/01/09 - The Islamic Society filed [5] a motion seeking a en banc rehearing.