The Southern Poverty Law Center is looking to dismiss all charges against the organization as it finds itself in a legal battle against the Department of Justice. In a statement released on Wednesday, the SPLC said it has filed a motion to dismiss the charges in federal court. Per the statement, the DOJ’s charges against the SPLC amount to retaliation and violate the organization’s constitutional right to due process.
Why did the DOJ bring charges against the SPLC?
The DOJ filed charges against the SPLC in April as acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said the organization failed to share information it learned about hate groups. According to PBS News, the DOJ said the SPLC paid informants to collect inside information from white supremacist groups but did not share their findings with law enforcement.
Blanche, however, later retracted his original statement. Expressing a different tone, the attorney general said the SPLC “selectively” shared the information it obtained.
What did the SPLC say in its motion to dismiss?
According to the SPLC’s motion to dismiss, the DOJ didn’t interview any of the organization’s members before bringing charges. The group also said the DOJ did not obtain any documents from the SPLC before pursuing the indictment.
“These procedural irregularities show that the charges against the SPLC were a foregone conclusion based on prosecutorial vindictiveness — driven by the White House and FBI leadership’s retribution campaign — rather than the result of a good-faith examination of the evidence,” the SPLC stated, adding the indictment was “premised on conclusory accusations but devoid of provable facts or a proper statement of the law.”
Bryan Fair, interim president and CEO of the SPLC, also defended the group’s longtime reputation as an advocate of social justice.
“For weeks, we have been arguing against these false allegations levied against the SPLC — an organization that for 55 years has stood as a beacon of hope fighting white supremacy and various forms of injustice to create a multiracial democracy where we can all live and thrive,” Fair said in a statement, per PBS News. “The government can’t prosecute the SPLC as payback for its protected speech — it violates basic constitutional rights.”
The SPLC, which has been tracking the activities of hate groups since 1971, has continually faced criticism from Republicans throughout the decades, PBS News reported. FBI Director Kash Patel issued yet another criticism against the SPLC in October, saying the group is a “partisan smear machine” and an anti-government organization.
The SPLC, however, continues to stand up for itself and its mission.
“The actions by the DOJ will not shake our resolve to fight for justice and ensure the promise of the Civil Rights Movement becomes a reality for all. The SPLC will vigorously defend ourselves, our staff and our work; we will continue to fight hate; and we will continue to envision and create a safer and more just world,” Fair said.