Cornell law professor blasts Southern Poverty Law Center for stirring hate



The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) of Montgomery, Alabama was first established decades ago to combat the Ku Klux Klan and racism in general through its work in helping impoverished blacks fight discrimination. In recent years, however, SPLC has exhibited a tendency to label anyone or any group that disagrees with them as "racist" or a "hate group," says a Cornell Law School professor.

William A. Jacobson, an associate clinical professor at Cornell Law School, stated Wednesday in a piece written for Legal Insurrection that SPLC attempts to cut off debate and quell the free expression of ideas by labeling its political opponents as "hate groups."

And it so happens that conservatives and conservative organizations are the ones SPLC targets on a regular basis.
For example, the Family Research Council has been at the forefront of the news this week due to a shooting that occurred at its headquarters in Washington. The alleged shooter stated that the reason he opened fire is that he hates the political views of the Council.

SPLC had added the Family Research Council to its "hate watch" list of what it claims are known "hate groups." The reason? The Council supports the traditional understanding of the term "marriage."

Although marriage has been understood for at least 3,500 years as a sacred covenant between a man and a woman, SPLC now claims that anyone who expresses that point of view is engaging in hate speech.

Once the SPLC labels an organization as a hate group, the minions of the left wing fall into lockstep by staging protests, boycotts, and bans. Chick-fil-A is a case in point. Some universities have banned the company from their campuses, not due to any discrimination against anyone but due to the company president's support for the traditional definition of marriage.

No one anywhere has been able to document a single case of discrimination against gays at Chick-fil-A.

Further, SPLC has targeted the tea party in a similar manner, claiming that the group is part of the "Patriot Movement," which it routinely smears by falsely including in its ranks white supremacists and mass murderers such as Timothy McVeigh.
However, there is no evidence linking the tea party to either white supremacists or McVeigh. But this did not prevent SPLC from labeling Tucson shooter Jared Loughner as a right wing extremist long after it had been established that Loughner had no such ties.

SPLC also has a history of targeting individuals who express a fundamental disagreement with what most conservatives believe is its extremist liberal mindset. SPLC once claimed that this reporter is actually an anonymous blogger by the name of "Ulsterman," an allegation that not only is false but for which there is not a shred of credible evidence. Pamela Geller of the blog Atlas Shrugs was referred to by SPLC as a hate mongering "loon." And former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's speech at the 2010 National Tea Party Convention was labeled as an example of hate speech because she stated that "America is ready for another revolution," in reference to the Founding Fathers and the need to return to the founding principles of the nation.

Jacobson maintains that these examples show that SPLC is spiraling out of control, using the very hate speech it decries to falsely label others and essentially silence all dissent.

(Hat tip to Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs for contributing to this article).
Cornell law professor blasts Southern Poverty Law Center for stirring hate - National Conservative | Examiner.com