Who’s Behind the Influx of Anti-Shariah Bills Across the US?
The American Laws for American Courts Act (ALAC)—more commonly known as the anti-Sharia law bill—has surfaced in numerous states across the United States over the past fifteen years. The model framework for the Act was created in 2011 by anti-Muslim activist and attorney David Yerushalmi. Since then, the legislation has served as the blueprint for a variety of anti-Sharia bills introduced across the country.
According to Act for America, “American Laws for American Courts Act prevents state courts from applying foreign laws and foreign legal doctrines when doing so infringes on the fundamental Constitutional rights of any of the parties involved.” The term “foreign law” is widely understood to be a direct reference to Sharia law allegedly being utilized in American courts. Defending the legislation, Yerushalmi stated: “American Laws for American Courts is not a slogan; it is actual legislation available to every state that enacts it, and it will ensure that no state court applies foreign laws or judgments that deprive a party of their constitutional rights.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a version of this law, while Texas Governor Greg Abbott had previously enacted similar legislation in his state. Over the years, more states have adopted comparable measures. According to supporters of the legislation, the American Laws for American Courts Act has been enacted in twelve states: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Washington.
This legislation is ultimately superfluous. It is already impermissible for American courts to use foreign legal systems to override or reinterpret the U.S. Constitution. The true purpose of these bills appears to be raising public anxiety about Sharia law, thereby fostering fear of an imagined threat allegedly seeking to undermine or conquer the United States. Yerushalmi himself acknowledged this objective in an interview with The New York Times: “If this thing passed in every state without any friction, it would have not served its purpose. The purpose was heuristic—to get people asking this question, ‘What is Shariah?’”
David Yerushalmi, also known as David Beychok, is an American Orthodox Jewish attorney born in 1956. A right-wing political activist based in Arizona and New York, he is an alumnus of Cardozo School of Law. His official website, American Freedom Law Center, describes him as “an expert on national security, especially in the context of law and its intersection with Islamic terrorism.”
Yerushalmi is also the founder and president of the Society of Americans for National Existence (SANE), an anti-Islam advocacy organization established in 2006 that promotes efforts to criminalize the application of Sharia law. Along with attorney Robert Muise, he co-founded the American Freedom Law Center (AFLC), whose mission statement declares:
“The American Freedom Law Center (AFLC) fights for your faith and freedom by advancing and defending America’s Judeo-Christian heritage and moral foundation through litigation, education, and public policy programs.”
Yerushalmi and Muise have also served as legal representatives for prominent anti-Muslim activist Pamela Geller, her organization, the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), and AFDI Vice President Robert Spencer. These figures and organizations are widely known for promoting controversial and hostile views toward Islam and Muslims in America. The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated AFDI as an anti-Muslim hate group. Yerushalmi has represented Geller and her associates in multiple legal cases over the years.
For decades, Yerushalmi has devoted considerable effort to publishing works and establishing organizations that critics argue have contributed significantly to the spread of Islamophobia in the United States. A publication by Hoopoe.org notes:
“In the 1990s, Yerushalmi served as counsel and senior policy research director at the neoconservative Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies, with offices in Jerusalem and Washington, D.C. He launched the ‘Mapping Sharia in America’ campaign in 2007, a project aimed at analyzing mosques for signs of radicalism, and acts as general counsel for the Center for Security Policy.
He has provided legal counseling to anti-Muslim groups such as Stop Islamization of America and Stop the Madrassa, and is considered part of a broader Islamophobia network. Although he lacks formal training in Sharia law, he authored a critique of Sharia-compliant finance published in the Utah Law Review in 2008.”
Among his notable publications are Shariah, Law and “Financial Jihad”: How Should America Respond? (2008), Shari’ah’s Black Box: Civil Liability and Criminal Exposure Surrounding Shari’ah-Compliant Finance (2008), Shariah: The Threat to America: An Exercise in Competitive Analysis (2010), the American Laws for American Courts Model Act (2010), and Shari’a and Violence in American Mosques (2011). He also co-authored, with Robert J. Muise, Offensive and Defensive Lawfare: Fighting Civilization Jihad in America’s Courts (2015). From 2008 to 2021, he served as outside General Counsel to the Center for Security Policy in Washington, D.C.
These publications represent only a portion of Yerushalmi’s extensive body of work. Taken together, they reveal a sustained focus on portraying Islam and Muslim communities as threats to American society. His rhetoric has consistently sought to create friction between American Muslims and the broader public, fostering suspicion, fear, and social division rather than mutual understanding and civic cohesion.
IP Correspondent