Posted on 06/20/2018 2:28:26 AM PDT by Liz
No fewer than 60 organizations branded "hate groups" or otherwise attacked by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) are considering legal action against the left-wing smear factory, a Christian legal nonprofit leader confirmed to PJ Media on Tuesday. He suggested that the $3 million settlement and apology the SPLC gave to Maajid Nawaz and his Quilliam Foundation on Monday would encourage further legal action.
"We haven't filed anything against the SPLC, but I think a number of organizations have been considering filing lawsuits against the SPLC, because they have been doing to a lot of organizations exactly what they did to Maajid Nawaz that's part of the settlement," Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, told PJ Media on Tuesday.
Liberty Counsel filed a lawsuit against the charity navigation organization GuideStar for defamation, after GuideStar adopted the SPLC's "hate group" list. That lawsuit is ongoing.
In 2016, the SPLC published its "Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists," listing Muslim reformer Maajid Nawaz, a practicing Muslim, as one such extremist. The left-wing group listed various reasons for including him, changing the reasons every so often, and even at one point mentioning that he had gone to a strip club for his bachelor party.
On Monday, SPLC President Richard Cohen extended his group's "sincerest apologies to Mr. Nawaz, Quilliam, and our readers for the error, and we wish Mr. Nawaz and Quilliam all the best." In settling the suit, the SPLC paid Nawaz's organization $3.375 million.
"This is a significant settlement," Staver told PJ Media. "3.375 million dollars, and it did not even go to litigation; it was a result of a demand letter."
Importantly, "the allegations that were at issue here were very similar to the allegations against the other groups," the Liberty Counsel chairman explained. "The SPLC promotes false propaganda, demonizes and labels groups they disagree with, and that labeling has economic as well as physical consequences." SPONSORED
The SPLC started as a group to oppose racist terrorism, and its first legal action targeted the Ku Klux Klan. In recent decades, the organization has begun marking mainstream organizations as "hate groups" on par with the KKK. Last year, 47 nonprofit leaders denounced the SPLC's "hate list" in an open letter to the media. The SPLC has admitted that its "hate group" list is based on "opinion." Staver insisted that the settlement with Nawaz "will encourage further legal action." He suggested that the settlement "helps our lawsuit against GuideStar" and may encourage organizations that were considering suing the SPLC to actually file the paperwork.
"There are probably about 60 organizations that we're talking to — there's at least 60," Staver told PJ Media. He mentioned the group of 47 nonprofit leaders who denounced the SPLC last year, and said "that group has grown since then."
Furthermore, many of the "hate groups" attacked by the SPLC do not encourage hate or violence, but merely disagree with the left-wing organization's political views. Many — like the Family Research Council (FRC), the Ruth Institute, and Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) — merely stand for marriage as between one man and one woman. The SPLC has twisted 30-year-old arguments to smear these groups, and in one egregious case the group actually quoted as hateful The Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Other organizations attacked by the SPLC also told PJ Media they are "considering their options" regarding a lawsuit."Truthfully, I have not been following the activities of the SPLC too closely," Jennifer Roback Morse, founder and president of the Ruth Institute, an organization that lost its credit card processor, Vanco Payments, over the SPLC's "hate group" labeling last year, told PJ Media.
"Pursuing our mission is more important than attempting to take on the behemoth of the SPLC.""I must say, though, this apology to Mr. Nawaz has caused us to consider our options," Morse added, cryptically."We are reviewing all our legal options," J.P. Duffy, a spokesman for the Family Research Council, told PJ Media on Tuesday.
A spokesman for Prager University, another organization attacked by the SPLC, said that "at this point" the group had "no intention to sue," but they "reserve the right to change their mind as the situation evolves."
Jeremy Tedesco, Senior Counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), echoed this trend, saying his organization is "evaluating all our options," including a potential lawsuit."It's appalling and offensive for the Southern Poverty Law Center to compare peaceful organizations which condemn violence and racism with violent and racist groups just because it disagrees with their views," Tedesco told PJ Media. "That's what SPLC did in the case of Quilliam and its founder Maajid Nawaz, and that's what it has done with ADF and numerous other organizations and individuals."
"This situation confirms once again what commentators across the political spectrum have been saying for decades: SPLC has become a far-left organization that brands its political opponents as 'haters' and 'extremists' and has lost all credibility as a civil rights watchdog," the ADF senior counsel added. Tedesco defended the good name of Alliance Defending Freedom, which SPLC falsely maligns as a "hate group."
"With eight wins in the last seven years at the U.S. Supreme Court and hundreds of victories for free speech at America's public universities, ADF is one of the nation's most respected and successful legal advocates, working to preserve our fundamental freedoms of speech, religion, and conscience for people from all walks of life," he said.
Looks like it’s time for Morris Dees to cash in his Caribbean accounts and head for the hills!
Line ‘em up. Deep pockets. SPLC has a $320m endowment.
Couldnt happen to a more deserving group.
The site needs to be posted over and over to get the word out. First time I’ve seen it thanks to your post. Thank you.
“Turning the Other Cheek” has been abused within and without the church. It does not require allowing evil to go unchallenged.
Saul Alinsky and his followers love to shove that misinterpretation in Christian faces.
We either fight back or lose; rubber knives at gunfights does not work. Lawfare is the weapon of choice now. It will be uphill, because the courts are dominated by communists, something is better than nothing.
I’m surprised by your post. It’s been in my top five for four years or more.
Thank you for reposting this.
There were quite a few I did not make. I need to get busy.
Has Apple? (I do not use any Apple products, and would not know how to determine this with certainty.)
“This is a significant settlement,” Staver told PJ Media. “3.375 million dollars, and it did not even go to litigation; it was a result of a demand letter.”
I hope they take facebook and twitter with 'em too.
Being a hate group fighting faux hate is a lucrative business.
I’ve made dozens of comments about this organization of law pimps and queers, but I have not seen this site posted. I guess I just overlooked it.
All those groups should ban together, hire the very best class-action law firm there is and sue the living daylights out of this evil, commie bunch. Sue em right into bankruptcy and then some. Then, go after those outfits that fund and support them.
Southern-based state Attorney Generals should file suit demanding they STOP demeaning Southern states....inferring southern states are poverty-stricken
.......interesting......
Everyone needs to sue these lowlifes. Best news for a long time...
AND JUST FOR THE FUN OF IT...
We need to create our own lists of haters... people we suspect of being communists... AND PEOPLE WE’VE IDENTIFIED who ‘hate’ conservatives, Christians, AND gun owners.
Let’s out THE LITTLE JERKS, SNOWFLAKES AND HATERS....
......good idea......
Apple is now taking donations for the Southern Poverty Law Center ...
https://www.theverge.com/2017/.../apple-donations-southern-poverty-law-center-itune...
Aug 20, 2017 - Last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook sent an e-mail to company ... donation to the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League, and ... Android Messages will let you send texts from your computer starting today ...
This!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.