Left-leaning Media Ignore Conservative Group’s Massive Legal Victory Against Southern Poverty Law Center
10th May 2023
The Southern Poverty Law Center routinely brands mainstream conservative and Christian organizations “hate groups,” placing them on a map with chapters of the Ku Klux Klan, but most lawsuits aiming to hold the SPLC accountable for this alleged defamation have failed. Judges often dismiss defamation lawsuits against the SPLC, saying the defamed “hate groups” fail to meet the “actual malice” standard.
Yet on March 31, District Judge Keith Watkins denied the SPLC’s motion to dismiss a defamation claim from the Dustin Inman Society and its founder, D.A. King. The Dustin Inman Society is a pro-immigration enforcement group that the SPLC brands an “anti-immigrant hate group.” Watkins published his opinion explaining the ruling on April 24. His ruling allows the case to move into the discovery phase of litigation, where King can demand SPLC documents to prove his case (and the SPLC can demand documents from King, as well).
Watkins’ ruling represents the first time that an SPLC-accused “hate group” has succeeded in making it to discovery in a defamation lawsuit directly challenging the SPLC on its “hate group” accusation. Many organizations, including the Center for Immigration Studies, the Proud Boys, Liberty Counsel, and D. James Kennedy Ministries, have failed to reach this point, even though D. James Kennedy Ministries appealed all the way to the Supreme Court.