Robert Muise

Cutler had asserted that the provision requiring individuals to obtain health insurance coverage or face monetary penalties violates the religion clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and a previous Supreme Court Decision, "1947 Everson v Board of Education", and allows the government to favor one religion over another religion.

Cutler sought a declaration that the Act is unconstitutional, invalid, and unenforceable.

Robert J. Muise (born 1965) is an American attorney who specializes in constitutional law litigation.

Along with attorney David Yerushalmi, he is co-founder and Senior Counsel of the American Freedom Law Center (AFLC).

Before launching AFLC, Muise was Senior Trial Counsel at the Ann Arbor-based Thomas More Law Center, a conservative Christian law firm founded by Domino's Pizza founder Tom Monaghan.

Muise is noted for litigating the first Constitutional challenge to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act—commonly referred to as "Obamacare".

After receiving his undergraduate degree in 1987 from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, Muise served thirteen years as an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps.

He first served as an infantry officer for 9 years, during which time he participated in the Persian Gulf War.

While a captain on active duty, he attended Notre Dame Law School, graduating summa cum laude in 1997.

Prior to resigning his commission in 2000, Muise served several years as a Marine Judge Advocate while attaining the rank of major.

His personal military decorations include the Meritorious Service Medal, the Navy Commendation Medal, and the Navy Achievement Medal.

Muise was one of the attorneys defending Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, a retired Marine battalion commander, during a court martial involving charges arising out of an insurgent attack against Marines in Haditha, Iraq in November 2005.

The allegations against Chessani were for failing to properly report and investigate what is known as the Haditha killings.

Muise, along with co-counsel David Yerushalmi, has represented the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) -- an anti-Islamic organization founded by Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer—in several legal actions against various transportation authorities around the country, who have refused to run several of AFDI's proposed pro-Israel/anti-sharia advertisements.

In 2009, Muise successfully challenged the city of Dearborn, Michigan's restriction on a Christian pastor's right to distribute religious literature to Muslims at the city's annual Arab International Festival.

Other case highlights include participating in the defense of retired LtCol Jeffrey Chessani of the Haditha killings (United States v. LtCol Jeffrey Chessani, USMC) and his successful defense of four Christian missionaries arrested in 2010 for breach of the peace while evangelizing at an Arab festival in Dearborn, Michigan (City of Dearborn v. David Wood, et al.,).

On March 23, 2010, Muise and co-counsel David Yerushalmi filed the first federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, ''Thomas More Law Center et al. v. Pres.

Obama et al.'' The case was filed in Detroit, Michigan on behalf of four Michigan residents who did not have health insurance and who objected to the Act's individual mandate, which required them to purchase insurance.

On October 7, 2010, the judge ruled against the plaintiffs.

The case was appealed to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

which also ruled against the plaintiffs and upheld the individual mandate.

On August 10, 2011, the National Law Journal named him the Appellate Lawyer of the Week for his legal efforts in this case.

In May 2011, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the restriction was unreasonable, and ruled that Dearborn and its police department "violated Saieg's First Amendment right to freedom of speech."

Muise filed a federal lawsuit against the City of San Francisco on behalf of the Catholic League and two Catholic citizens after the city passed an official resolution condemning the Catholic Church's teaching which opposed adoptions by homosexual couples.

On January 31, 2012, the American Freedom Law Center (AFLC) filed a request for a preliminary injunction in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York (MTA), seeking to have the MTA run an AFDI "pro-Israel / anti-Jihad" bus advertisement.

On Friday, July 20, 2012, Federal Judge Paul Engelmayer ruled that the MTA violated the First Amendment rights of AFDI when it rejected their advertisement.

Muise and Yerushalmi filed for a U.S. Supreme Court review, and in June 2012, the Supreme Court ruled against the plaintiffs and upheld the individual mandate.

In 2012, Muise and Yerushalmi co-authored an article published in Duke University Press's online version of the Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law, entitled, "Wearing the Crown of Solomon? Chief Justice Roberts and the Affordable Care Act 'Tax'", which criticized the majority opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts in the United States Supreme Court's ruling on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act.

The case was dismissed by U.S. District Court Judge Frederic Block for lack of ripeness because the government stated that the new implementing regulations would not be finalized until August 1, 2013.

In July 2014, American Freedom Law Center v. Obama, et al, was filed by the American Freedom Law Center which charged the Obama administration of violating its constitutional duty to "faithfully execute" the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

In August 2014, Yerushalmi and Muise took over the appeal of Cutler v. United States Department of Health and Human Services, et al. Cutler had challenged the constitutionality of the Act, both on its face and as applied to him and his constituents.

Notice of appeal was filed by Cutler on July 25, 2014, and then Yerushalmi and Muise from the American Freedom Law Center were contacted to handle the appeal.

On October 16, 2014 an injunction pending appeal was filed based on "unequal treatment under the law".

In February 2014, Muise, on behalf of the American Freedom Law Center, was one of the attorneys who filed an appeal of the dismissal of a lawsuit filed on behalf of Priests for Life, a national, Catholic, pro-life organization based in New York City.

The lawsuit challenged the constitutionality of the Health and Human Services contraceptive mandate.

On May 15, 2015, the court dismissed the lawsuit for lack of standing.

AFLC's opening brief was filed on February 4, 2015.

Oral arguments were presented by Muise on May 12, 2015.

On November 6, 2015 the Supreme Court of the United States decided it will review the case combined with 6 other similar challenges to the contraceptive mandate under the case name Zubik v. Burwell.

Cutler also sought to "roll back" the law to the status it had prior to 2014 on various grounds, arguing that the law now violates the Constitution by allowing unequal protection under the law (referring to the extension of pre-tax subsidies until October 1, 2016, but only if the state insurance commissioner agrees. ) The court dismissed the case for lack of standing.