Anti-immigration group sues SPLC over inclusion on hate list

Will this get anywhere? What are the slander/free expression issues? Will there be monetary damages?

 

Mark Krikorian's Center for Immigration Studies Sues SPLC Under RICO Act

They're alleging wire fraud and RICO violations that amount to racketeering, all used with an eye to harassing those with non-NPC political opinions.

One of the most prominent groups advocating for stricter immigration went to court Wednesday to demand a judge order the Southern Poverty Law Center to stop labeling it a "hate group," accusing the self-described watchdog of running an illegal racket to silence political opponents.

The Center for Immigration Studies says the SPLC's accusations that it is racist and anti-immigrant are wrong and have cost the nonprofit support and financial backing by scaring people away from doing business with the center.

The center brought its challenge to U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by filing a civil complaint under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act against SPLC President Richard Cohen and Heidi Beirich, who runs the group’s Hatewatch blog.

Mark Krikorian, the Center for Immigration Studies executive director, says his organization doesn’t meet the SPLC’s definition of a hate group and the Alabama-based watchdog knows it but persists anyway -- which he said was evidence of the racket.​

Other groups use the SPLC list to deplatform people, which has resulted in CIS losing donations.

But CIS isn't a racist group even under the SPLC's broad definition, as "immigrant" is not a race.

Because it doesn’t meet the SPLC's definition of a hate group yet the SPLC uses that label online, the center said, it amounts to wire fraud in violation of RICO.

The center says it wants a judge to award damages and order the SPLC to remove the "hate" label, and it wants the SPLC to affirmatively state on its website "that CIS is not a hate group."

RICO has been used to settle other thorny political clashes, including by the National Organization for Women, which in the 1980s and 1990s filed civil RICO claims against pro-life activists at abortion clinics.​

 

I love the idea of forcing the SPLC to respect their definition of a hate group.

Why not take it even further : have them label themselves as a hate group, by proving that they fit their own definition?

 

Hmmm, this group, the CIS, that lives each and every day by hating other people for profit is now upset the SPLC because the SPLC points out the CIS's unending manufactured hate propaganda, so the CIS is offended and thus is suing the SPLC?

Sure thing, that would certainly sound legit to Trumpies! The New American Way!

Sue away!

 

Our courts have time for frivolous law suits destined to go nowhere?

 

Except this group is not anti immigration, they just want tighter screenings on those that come in. And some of the evidence used to label them as a hate group is just guilt by association.

 

Good to see CIS standing up for themselves. Left unchecked, the SPLC would put anything which isn't lockstep progressive on it's hate list. Perhaps their hate list is just people they hate.

 

You are going out of your way to defend CIS, yet you couldn't even mention them in your OP? They are a white supremacist founded and funded hate group.

 

The SPLC is a hate group.

 

Says the party dominated by the trial lawyers.

 

Maybe 30 years ago.

 

Communist have a thing for making enemies list.

 

Autoritarians in general.

 

CIS will be repped to shreds, a defeat for far right wing authoritarianism.

 

Exposing the SPLC’s False ‘Anti-Muslim’ Smears Against the Trump Administration.

 

Good the splc is just a propaganda wing for the Democrat party. I think there ought to be a class action among all the groups they falsely labeled hate groups.

 

Yeah right. CIS is in the same boat as FAIR, Numbers USA, VDeer

 

pjmedia? really??

 

They make money on every single one.

 

I'm sorry, did you actually have anything to refute what I said or are you just spouting dribble for the sake of it?

 

TheMexChef is right, and the court case will dribble away into . . . nothingness.

 

Are you positive about that? Have you seen the balance sheet for the courts? You know what their operating costs are?

 

NumbersUSA? LOL.

If you want closed borders you're a hate group now.

https://www.numbersusa.com/about
https://www.numbersusa.com/about/no-immigrant-bashing

Literally Hitler.

 

If you are a group like CIS, FAIR, Numbers SUA, VDeer and similar groups, you betcha.

 

You know this to be a fact, and I do not. So please, give us the evidence that backs up your position and opinion. I never heard of them. The problem could be that you have a very loose definition of what white supremacy is, with a bar so law as an ant could not do the limbo under it. Or perhaps you don't, but it is so common on the left these days.