Yesterday, we announced that Liberty Counsel has joined the legal team as counsel in a lawsuit against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) regarding its “hate group” list and “Hate Map.” The case has already survived a motion to dismiss. Now we will begin intensive discovery of the SPLC.

Mark Potok is a former senior fellow at the SPLC who served as the editor-in-chief of the SPLC’s biannual publication, Intelligence Report, and its investigative reports. At the 2007 Michigan Alliance Against Hate Crimes Conference, Potok said, “We try and tackle these groups. Let me say that our aim, and sometimes the press describes us as monitoring hate groups. I want to say plainly that our aim in life is to destroy these groups, to completely destroy them.”

The SPLC “hate” label is false and dangerous, and Liberty Counsel is taking the SPLC to court. Read on about our latest case.

But first, please consider making a generous donation to our legal fund. Every donation made today will be DOUBLED IN IMPACT by a special Challenge Grant. — Mat

On a weekend in 2000, 16-year-old Dustin Inman and his parents were heading to the North Georgia mountains for a special Father’s Day fishing trip. The family never got to cast a line.

While waiting for a traffic light, the family car was slammed at a high rate of speed, killing Dustin instantly while knocking his parents, Billy and Kathy, unconscious. Kathy would spend the next five weeks in a coma before learning her only son had been killed, and that she would never again use her own legs.

The driver of the car that shattered the Inman family was an illegal immigrant, who despite his status, had been granted a valid North Carolina driver’s license. The illegal immigrant fled to Mexico and has never been brought to justice for killing Dustin or paralyzing Kathy.

In 2005, the Dustin Inman Society (DIS) was formed by Donald “D.A.” King with Billy and Kathy’s blessing. The organization was founded to “end illegal immigration, illegal employment, and the illegal administration and granting of Public Benefits and services through the equal application of existing laws” in the state of Georgia.

The SPLC designated the DIS as an “anti-immigrant hate group” in its annual Intelligence Report published in 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021, and classified it as a “hate group” in its annual Intelligence Report and Hate Maps published in 2019, 2020, and 2021. The SPLC also stated that D.A. King “focuses on vilifying all immigrants.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

The SPLC’s stated motivation is to “destroy” groups with which it disagrees, and it accomplishes this objective by falsely labeling nonviolent organizations as “hate groups.” This label is false and dangerous, and the SPLC and those who rely upon the false label must stop. Let me tell you why.

In 2013, Floyd Corkins was sentenced to 25 years in prison for his attempted mass murder in 2012 at the Family Research Council (FRC) offices in Washington, D.C. Corkins admitted that he selected FRC as his target because it was on the SPLC’s “hate group” list.

Corkins intended to stuff Chick-fil-A sandwiches into the mouths of the dead corpses. Fortunately, an alert security guard stopped Corkins, but not before Corkins shot the guard.

Media Matters uses the SPLC “hate group designation” as a source for critical statements on its website about pro-family and conservative organizations. The SPLC’s labeling is false and dangerous and has caused acts of violence against groups smeared with SPLC’s “hate” label.

And the Biden administration has had a number of meetings with the SPLC at the White House. You can only imagine the plans they cooked up.

Amazon, through its Amazon Smile charity program, used the SPLC hate map to exclude or revoke fundraising abilities of organizations listed on the SPLC “Hate Map.” One example of financial damages included Amazon Smile’s removal of the Center for Immigration Studies from its charity program, citing SPLC’s label as the reason. According to CIS, the removal from Amazon Smile cost them thousands of dollars.

For far too long, the SPLC has been allowed to destroy people and organizations with its false “hate” label. It’s time to hold the SPLC accountable, which is exactly what Liberty Counsel is doing.

On Monday, Liberty Counsel announced that we have joined the legal team as counsel representing the Dustin Inman Society and its founder and president, D.A. King, in their claims against the SPLC.

We have assembled a stellar legal team, which includes a nationally recognized defamation attorney who represented Nick Sandmann, a student at Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky, who attended the 2019 March for Life event in Washington, D.C., wearing a MAGA hat. The defamation lawsuits against the Washington Post and CNN for 250 million and 275 million, respectively, were settled in 2020 for undisclosed amounts.

An Alabama federal judge ruled against the SPLC’s motion to dismiss. We will now begin extensive discovery of this organization that has inflicted harm on our client and so many others.

We seek justice and we continue to fight in courtrooms across the country and at the U.S. Supreme Court for the right to life, religious liberty, and the natural family. We won all four of the cases we argued or briefed before the High Court last year, and two cases so far this year … and we aren’t done winning yet!

YOU can be part of the victorious blessing with your generous donation today, which will be DOUBLED IN IMPACT by a special Challenge Grant. Please, give generously today.

Mat Staver
Founder and Chairman
Liberty Counsel

P.S. One last thing! Join me for a life-changing tour of the Holy Land! Our next travel dates are in October of this year and several in 2024. Don’t miss your chance to deepen your faith by walking the paths our Savior walked. Learn more at CJTravel.org.

Sources:

“Liberty Counsel Represents Immigration Policy Group against SPLC.” Liberty Counsel, July 10, 2023. Lc.org/newsroom/details/071023-liberty-counsel-represents-immigration-policy-group-against-splc.

“Mission Statement.” New Dustin Inman Society. Accessed July 10, 2023. Newdustininmansociety.org/mission-statment/.

“Who Was Dustin Inman?” New Dustin Inman Society. Accessed July 10, 2023. Newdustininmansociety.org/who-was-dustin-inman/.