Act Of Betrayal

I don’t often report on matters already covered by another blog but the ABA Journal noted a recent resignation accepted by the Ohio Supreme Court which is noteworthy for the dissent of Justice Fischer

I dissent from this court’s decision to accept Romin Iqbal’s application for retirement or resignation with disciplinary action pending. As I have said before, resignation-with-discipline-pending cases are sealed proceedings that pose a transparency problem because the public is not allowed access to information that has been provided to this court by disciplinary counsel in such cases. See In re Resignation of Leone, 160 Ohio St.3d 1227, 2020-Ohio-2997, 155 N.E.3d 950, ¶ 26-28 (Fischer, J., dissenting). Therefore, in the interest of transparency, I provide the following information, which is available from public sources.

Iqbal worked with the Ohio chapter of the Council on AmericanIslamic Relations (“CAIR-Ohio”) for 15 years and served as its executive director for three years, starting in 2018; he was also the organization’s legal director. Danae King & Yilun Cheng, Romin Iqbal, of CAIR-Ohio, fired for allegedly leaking information to anti-Muslim group, Columbus Dispatch (Dec. 14, 2021), https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/2021/12/14/cair-ohio-director-firedallegedly-working-anti-muslim-group/8901581002/ (accessed Feb. 20, 2024) [https://perma.cc/DV2A-VVHL]; Danae King, Who is Romin Iqbal? Former head of CAIR-Ohio was working with an anti-Muslim group, Columbus Dispatch
(Dec. 15, 2021), https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/2021/12/15/who-rominiqbal-former-cair-ohio-head-worked anti-muslim-site/8902133002/ (accessed Feb. 20, 2024) [https://perma.cc/K9FC-PMLE]. CAIR is a Muslim advocacy-andcivil-rights organization whose work includes monitoring anti-Muslim groups. King & Cheng, Romin Iqbal, of CAIR-Ohio, fired for allegedly leaking information to anti-Muslim group.

An internal investigation by CAIR revealed that Iqbal had been leaking confidential organizational information to the Investigative Project on Terrorism (“IPT”) since at least 2008. Danae King, CAIR: Spying on Columbus Muslim advocacy group dates at least to 2008, Columbus Dispatch (Dec. 16, 2021), https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/2021/12/16/cair-ohios-romin-iqbal-workedanti-muslim-group-since 2008/8922161002/ (accessed Feb. 20, 2024) [https://perma.cc/XR3W-CDX7]. IPT refers to itself as a nonprofit group that works to expose terrorist organizations, but many describe it as an anti-Islamic hate group. Danae King, ‘A complete act of betrayal’: CAIR-Ohio considers legal action after director fired, Columbus Dispatch (Dec. 15, 2021), https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/2021/12/15/a-complete-act-betrayal-cairohio-speaks-firing-romin-iqbal/8907110002/ (accessed Feb. 20, 2024) [https://perma.cc/T3EY-2RMQ]. IPT itself has said that it intends to “uncover and publicly expose radical Islamist activity on American soil by groups like CAIR.” Id. According to CAIR, Iqbal admitted to secretly working with IPT and had been sharing confidential meeting recordings and emails with IPT. Id.

Iqbal broke the trust and confidentiality of the organization he was working for, and by working directly contrary to that organization’s interests, he opened himself up to disciplinary charges. For transparency purposes and for the protection of the public, I would not accept Iqbal’s application for retirement or resignation with disciplinary action pending. Therefore, I dissent.

(Mike Frisch)