American Muslims for Palestine (AMP): Update in Ongoing Lawsuit

MLFA’s Legal Division wins key discovery rulings in case defending American Muslims for Palestine

The Civil Litigation department within the Muslim Legal Fund of America’s (MLFA’s) legal division of CLCMA secured a great victory this week for American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), in a lawsuit filed by the parents of David Boim.

In this case, Joyce and Stanley Boim want to hold AMP and its officers responsible for a much earlier judgment against other Muslim nonprofit organizations, of $156 million–which they mostly haven’t been able to collect. The Boims claimed in their first lawsuit that earlier Muslim organizations including the Holy Land Foundation, among others, were responsible for the death of their son David at the hands of Hamas. Now, they want AMP substituted in and found liable, without a trial, because they claim AMP must be just a continuance of the same earlier Muslim, and particularly Palestinian, nonprofit organizations.

The lawsuit has been going on since May 2017. The attorneys in the Civil Litigation department at CLCMA have represented AMP at each step, supported by funding from MLFA’s donors. Now, for the first time, the Boims have to back up their allegations against AMP and its officers with facts and discovery responses — something they have not yet had to do during the previous six years of this litigation.

During a court hearing on May 3, 2023, the federal Magistrate Judge McShain in Chicago granted many of our attorneys’ motions and ordered the Boims to answer discovery and to prove their case. Among the obligations the Boims must now meet, spelled out in the court order, they have to sort through the sixty boxes of documents they claim “may” be relevant in their lawsuit against AMP. And the plaintiffs need to identify the relevant documents, something they tried to push off on our attorneys to do. They also have to copy and produce those relevant documents at their own cost, even though they tried to have AMP bear the cost for that. And, the Boims and their attorneys are not allowed to wait until the end of discovery in this case to answer the questions sent by our legal division’s attorneys – despite their efforts to stall at providing any real answers by only responding that “investigation continues.” Six years into this case, they should have completed their investigation of the allegations into their own claims. Now, they need to show the proof.

As the case moves forward, the attorneys in MLFA’s legal division will continue to represent AMP, protect its rights, and make sure the Boims need to prove each and every allegation they make against this Muslim nonprofit.