DETROIT — Flanked by dozens of supporters on Friday, October 7, Dearborn mother Rehab Amer, her husband Ahmed and son Hussein watched as Federal Judge Paul Borman heard arguments as to whether their civil case against the state’s Judson Center, Inc. and four workers should proceed. 

The Amer family including Ahmed (L), Hussein (C, not suit coat), and Rehab (to his right) pose with lead attorney Nabih Ayad (front, C) and supporters in Detroit outside of the Theodore Levin Courthouse downtown.

Attorney Nabih Ayad is seeking an application of the equitable tolling doctrine of the case, which says that a three-year statute of limitations does not apply to Amers’ case if establishing “extraordinary circumstances” can be proven.

For the Amers putting the suit together was a risk they were not willing to take until their son Hussein turned 18 and became an adult for fear that he would be taken away by the state as three others were, despite Rehab Amer’s speedy, decisive acquittal of murder charges relating to the death of her two-year-old son Samier in 1985. 

Hussein was raised as the couple’s nephew for years and born in Canada to assure that he would not suffer the same fate as the other four children, who the Amers have said suffered a pattern of abuse from foster care agents and were made to believe that their mother was guilty. 

“If there was ever a situation where the equitable tolling rule would apply it would be this one, I can’t think of a more horrific set of circumstances than the ones Mrs. Amer had to endure,” Ayad said in relation to the case. 

“The removing of the children, including one (Zinabe) who was taken right from the hospital immediately after birth, along with the rest of their children and the death of her child (due to brittle bone disease from a fall in the bathtub) is a case of extraordinary circumstances if ever there was a case.” 

In the courtroom last Friday, Assistant Attorney General John Fedynsky argued that the Amers did not have fear because of the public nature of their case in probate court prior to the current lawsuit. “It’s clear that there was no fear,” he said.

But Ayad argued against that assertion noting the great lengths the family went to so they could keep Hussein. He also highlighted the positive contribution the family made to benefit other families in the state by fighting for years to eventually pass the Amer Act, otherwise known as House Bill 4118, which allows for special consideration when children are placed in foster homes, mandating that they are first placed with relatives if possible and also given special consideration in regards to religion and culture.

The defense also asked the judge why the Amers had waited a few months after Hussein turned 18 to bring the suit instead of filing it right away.

Their attorney Ayad, the former Michigan Civil Rights Commissioner, said this week that the case took a great deal of research to put together and that there is no legal merit to that argument because establish equitable tolling is the central point of the case. 

Ayad says that the entire two-decades-plus long ordeal could have been avoided in the first place if the Amers’ children were given to relatives at the beginning and allowed to be raised in a manner true to their Arab and Muslim heritage in safe homes. 

“The Amer Act vindicates the family and and gives credence to the individuals, who were absolutely innocent, to make sure this type of action never happens again. Anyone who has kids will tell you how traumatic losing a child is, it’s the absolute worst, and on top of that to have them raised in a different home apart from their true culture and religion (as the Amers’ kids were), it’s absolutely traumatizing,” 

Outside the court last Friday, Amer said that she hopes justice will prevail and thanked those who supported her. Supporters at the trial included several members of the Arab Student Union at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, President of the NAACP of Western Wayne County Aaron Sims, former State Rep. Butch Hollowell (also an NAACP legal counsel), members of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, including Regional Director Imad Hamad, and more. 

Written support in the form of letters to the court came from Attorney Mark Bernstein, ADC, the Arab American and Chaldean Council, Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Islamic Institute of Knowledge and Islamic Center of America, and NAACP of Detroit President Rev. Wendell Anthony. 

Borman said that the court will take the case under advisement and gave no timetable for a decision. 

“It could be in two weeks or it could be in two years,” Ayad later said, estimating the timetable.