PLC’s Defamatory Hate Map Deserves Scrutiny With Full Transparency

In King et al. v. Southern Poverty Law Center, the DIS argues that during King’s advocacy for legislative reform to curtail illegal immigration, the SPLC falsely designated it as a “hate group” in its annual Intelligence Reports published in 2018-2021, and falsely stated that King focused “on vilifying all immigrants.” However, the district court denied access to the SPLC’s internal editorial processes (emails, policies, methodologies) to see how it concluded DIS was a “hate group” and then faulted DIS for not having the evidence to prove its claims.

Liberty Counsel argues that unless discovery into the SPLC’s editorial processes is permitted and the evidence is properly considered, DIS’ actual‑malice claims will remain “impossible to prove,” contrary to U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

“[DIS] lacked evidence because the district court denied them the discovery that would have produced it,” reads the brief. “At every stage, the evidence [DIS] needed was the evidence they were told they could not have.”

Liberty Counsel noted that a case is unwinnable, and a plaintiff cannot prove actual malice, “simply by asking hostile witnesses whether they acted with actual malice.”

Under Herbert v. Lando, the U.S. Supreme Court explicitly allowed discovery into a defamation defendant’s editorial decision‑making to prove actual malice, making the district court’s decision a “reversible error.”

While the district court limited its analysis almost entirely to the SPLC’s 2021 re‑designation of DIS as a “hate group,” it completely ignored how the initial 2018 “hate group” designation suddenly emerged after years of the SPLC not labeling it as such.

A jury could “infer” actual malice from the fact that SPLC reversed a long‑standing view without meaningful new facts, Liberty Counsel concluded.

The SPLC’s hate list is connected with real-world tragedies. On August 15, 2012, Floyd Corkins intended to commit mass murder at the headquarters of the Family Research Council (FRC) in Washington, D.C. Fortunately, Corkins was stopped by the security guard, who was shot in the process. Corkins confessed to the FBI that he was motivated by the “Hate Map” on the SPLC website that listed FRC as a “hate group.” In 2013, Corkins was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

In June 2017, James Hodgkinson shot Rep. Steve Scalise, Zach Barth, a staff member for Congressman Roger Williams, former Congressional staff member Matt Mika and two U.S. Capitol Police officers at a practice for a charity baseball game. Hodgkinson died of his wounds after first responders successfully stopped his rampage. The SPLC admitted that Hodgkinson “liked” the SPLC on Facebook. In posts on its website dating back to 2014, SPLC had repeatedly implied that Scalise associated with white supremacists and other groups the organization had deemed “hate groups.”

Liberty Counsel’s Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Falsely labeling organizations with whom you disagree as ‘hate groups’ is irresponsible, dangerous, and deadly. True discovery in this case is imperative because without it summary judgment becomes preordained—not because the claim lacks merit, but because the evidence needed to prove it has been withheld. That is not how defamation law is supposed to work. ‘Hate group’ labels carry real‑world consequences because third parties often treat them as authoritative judgments. The Southern Poverty Law Center’s editorial decision-making needs scrutiny, transparency, and accountability.”