More, Faster!

The Southern Poverty Law Center loses a $3 million defamation suit:

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups, has apologized for including the Quilliam Foundation, a counter-extremism group, and its founder, Maajid Nawaz, in its Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists. “Mr. Nawaz and Quilliam have made valuable and important contributions to public discourse, including by promoting pluralism and condemning both anti-Muslim bigotry and Islamist extremism,” the SPLC wrote in a statement. The SPLC will also pay a $3.375 million settlement to Quilliam that will be used to fight “anti-Muslim bigotry and Islamist extremism,” according to a Quilliam press release.

But…what made the SPLC refer to them as a “hate group?”

“We were able to fight back against the Regressive Left and show them that moderate Muslims will not be silenced,” Nawaz said in the release.

Aaaah.  It all makes sense now.

3 thoughts on “More, Faster!

  1. Popehat had an interesting take on this yesterday. The First Amendment absolutist was aghast that SPLC settled.

    My take is much like the comment I posted there: it was a business decision to settle before the suit. SPLC depends on its reputation to haul in donations and to get funding from folks like Google and Facebook for services relating to “hate groups.” Prolonged questioning and discovery of the SPLC’s “methods” and judgement would be hurtful to their bottom line. Hence even if the First Amendment gave them immunity, their reputation and business would suffer, so settling this was in their best interest.

  2. Insty reports that there are dozens of other organiaations that are now considering suits against the SPLC. Good. This is the way our system works. If you are going to make judgments that cost people money, you better be able to defend those standards. The SPLC does not want to make its deliberation process public. They should be made to do so.
    The SPLC is full of lawyers, I would bet that they have suddenly realized that thier judgement is clouded by what an outsider would see as ideology and personal animus (e.g. “hate”).
    The job of lefty civil rights organizations these days is to deny people their civil rights — freedom of speech, freedom of conscious, and freedom of association.

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