Court Decision About Discovery in Libel Lawsuit Against Council on American-Islamic Relations Foundation
From today’s order by Magistrate Judge David T. Schutz (D. Minn.) in Saroya v. CAIR Foundation, Inc.:
Plaintiff Lori Saroya … moves to compel discovery from Defendant CAIR Foundation, Inc. … and its affiliated regional non-profit organizations…. Because Saroya’s allegations raise claims that define a broad scope of discovery, her motion to compel is granted with limited exceptions….
CAIR is a Muslim civil rights organization in Washington, D.C. that has twenty-six affiliates across the country, including CAIR Minnesota. Saroya worked as the Executive Director of CAIR Minnesota from 2007 until 2016. In 2016, Saroya joined CAIR as the National Chapter Development Director and a member of its Board of Directors. She resigned in 2018.
After her resignation, Saroya took to the internet accusing CAIR of various misconduct. Among other things, Saroya accused CAIR of discrimination, harassment, retaliation, union busting, financial mismanagement, lack of board oversight, board incompetence, creating a hostile work environment, negatively portraying Muslims, making mistakes on legal cases, receiving foreign funding, and withholding money it owed her. Neither party disputes that Saroya made these accusations.
In 2021, CAIR sued Saroya for defamation, defamation per se, tortious interference with business relationships, and breach of contract…. Saroya moved for partial judgement on the pleadings as to CAIR’s claims of defamation, defamation per se, and tortious interference with business relationships. In relevant part, she argued the defamation claims were time barred, were based on non-actionable statements, and that CAIR had failed to identify the actionable statements with specificity.
The Court denied Saroya’s motion, ordering CAIR to file an amended complaint to specifically identify the actionable defamatory statements at issue. The Court explained that “what is actionable and not actionable is not clear at all from the face of the complaint,” and it directed CAIR to clarify which statements it believed were actionable, separating those out from statements of opinion or statements outside the statute of limitations. Instead of filing an amended complaint, however, CAIR voluntarily dismissed its case with prejudice.
On January 20, 2022—less than ten days after dismissal of the 2021 litigation— CAIR issued a press release titled: “Community Update on Cyberstalking by Lori Saroya, Ex-Staffer.” It described “a situation that CAIR has been working to resolve for some time”—namely, Saroya’s use of email and social media to “cyberstalk, smear, and undermine” the organization, its affiliates, and its members.
In relevant part, the press release described how Saroya began “attacking” CAIR through email and social media after her resignation. CAIR explained, “After enduring this obsessive and destructive cyberstalking for years, we deci
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