Dearborn denies favoring Muslim holidays after federal First Amendment suit

The city of Dearborn, Michigan, responded on Saturday, September 19, 2026, to a federal lawsuit by resident Margot Cleveland, a journalist for The Federalist, the Associated Press reported via ClickOrlando and PBS NewsHour. The suit, filed Thursday, alleged that the city and Mayor Abdullah Hammoud spent public money on Ramadan displays while not similarly marking the Christian holiday of Easter and the Jewish holiday of Passover, and that officials ignored Cleveland when she complained and asked that other religious holidays be honored. The city, in a spokesperson statement carried by those AP dispatches, said it has a longstanding commitment to serving all residents fairly and equitably, regardless of faith or background, and that it would continue to treat residents with equal protection under the law. Those are competing claims. This brief records them. It is not a finding of bias.

According to the lawsuit as those AP accounts summarized it, Dearborn last year spent $1,500 of public money on Ramadan banners and $5,000 on a crescent-moon symbol in Peace Park, and the police department sold Ramadan-themed shirts bearing the official emblem. The suit sought unspecified damages and asked a judge to find constitutional violations and order compliance with the First Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment. The AP pieces also recorded earlier, contested remarks by the mayor toward a local pastor; those remarks are not a ruling on this case. The claims remain unadjudicated. Opened wires reported no court finding that the city favored one faith.