Remember how CAIR folded like a snowman in a sauna when Andrew Whitehead’s lawyers started asking uncomfortable questions during the discovery process. They seem to have a great deal at stake here, and will be working hard to quash Savage’s lawsuit again.
“Michael Savage vows to take Islam fight to Supreme Court: Popular radio host seeks to expose CAIR’s ‘international funding sources,'” by Aaron Klein for World Net Daily, August 10 (thanks to Doug):
Talk-radio host Michael Savage has announced he will bring his recently dismissed copyright infringement lawsuit against the Council of American-Islamic Relations to the U.S. Supreme Court in hopes of making public the Islamic group’s sources of funding.
Savage’s suit — originally filed in San Francisco district court — alleged CAIR illegally published singled-out quotes and audio excerpts from his show regarding Islam, misappropriated his words and used the clips for its own fundraising purposes, damaging the value of his copyrighted material.
Indeed CAIR last year waged a public campaign using excerpted Savage remarks to urge advertisers to boycott his top-rated program. CAIR stated its campaign successfully resulted in Savage losing $1 million in advertising.
Part of Savage’s lawsuit alleged CAIR received millions in foreign funding and that it may have been wrongfully acting as a lobbyist or agent for a foreign government, violating the Islamic group’s nonprofit status.
Savage also alleged CAIR was engaged in racketeering, describing the group as a “mouthpiece of international terror” that helped fund the 9-11 attacks, a contention strongly denied by CAIR.
But his lawsuit was tossed last month by San Francisco District U.S. Judge Susan Illston, who ruled it is legal to use excerpts of a public broadcast for purposes of comment and criticism.
Illston, nominated to her position by President Bill Clinton, wrote in her ruling that Savage could try to rewrite the racketeering portion of his suit to better fit the specifics of his case.
Savage’s attorney Daniel Horowitz told WND he is reworking the suit to directly address Illston’s “respectful” ruling. He said the new suit includes over 200 pages of supporting documents, including 200 pages of transcripts of the meeting in which CAIR was founded.
On his program last week, Savage announced if Illston again rejects his suit, he will bring the case to the higher 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, and then to the Supreme Court.
“I’m going to open up this case. I’m going to sue CAIR. I’m bringing a lawsuit back against them. It’s going to cost me a fortune. And when Judge Illston rejects it again, which she will do because she’s a minion of the Bill Clinton crowd, I’m going to take it over her head and I’m going to go to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, where again I’m going to hit a stonewall. And then I’m going to take it to the Supreme Court until eventually I force CAIR to describe who their funding sources are,” Savage said.
[…]
“Don’t you understand what they’re doing to this country?” asked Savage. “How they’re targeting the Midwest, talk radio, one talk show host at a time? One company at a time? Don’t you know that CAIR is going to come for you?”
Continued Savage: “First they came for Michel Savage, and you didn’t raise your voice and you laughed. Then they came after Abercrombie and Fitch, and you didn’t raise your voice because you weren’t in the retail business. Tomorrow they’ll come after you and your business.”
Addressing CAIR directly, Savage warned: “One day you’re going to hit the wrong judge in the wrong city at the wrong time and then the American people are going to find out where your funding is coming from.”…
Read it all.