Federal Judge Says Christian Hate Group Can Legally Be Called a "Hate Group"

[NeoGreen]

https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2019/09/21/federal-judge-says-christian-hate-group-can-legally-be-called-a-hate-group/

Federal Judge Says Christian Hate Group Can Legally Be Called a “Hate Group”
By Hemant Mehta, September 21, 2019

A district court in Alabama has tossed out a lawsuit from a Christian ministry that didn’t like how the Southern Poverty Law Center labeled it a “hate group.” The judge said, correctly, that SPLC’s designation was protected by the First Amendment.

The lawsuit was filed in 2017 by D. James Kennedy Ministries (formerly called Truth in Action) after it was named to the SPLC’s list of “Active Anti-LGBT Hate Groups.” (Kennedy himself died in 2007.)

The ministry said in the lawsuit that being put on the SPLC’s list hurt them financially because Amazon (also a defendant) refused to allow them to fundraise via AmazonSmile precisely because they’re considered a “hate group.” GuideStar (also a defendant) temporarily labeled SPLC hate groups as such on their website, and the ministry said that also hurt fundraising.

The ministry insisted there was nothing hateful about them… Which was about as convincing as Donald Trump saying he’s not a racist.

The basis for SPLC’s declaration that the Ministry is a hate group is that the Ministry espouses and supports Biblical morals and principles concerning human sexuality. It was on these Biblical principles that this Nation was founded and built.
…
Based on GuideStar’s and SPLC’s statements, they have conspired to publish written information in interstate commerce that subjects the Ministry to disgrace, ridicule, odium, and contempt, by declaring the Ministry a hate group. Under Alabama law, this conduct constitutes defamation, specifically libel per se.
…
The SPLC knows that its publication of its claims that the Ministry is a Hate Group both in the Hate Map and in the SPLC Transmissions are false and that these publications defame the Ministry. The SPLC intended the Hate Map and SPLC Transmissions to be statements of fact, not statements Of opinion.

You don’t have to be a lawyer to recognize that was always a very weak attempt at showing defamation. If the SPLC was going after all ministries that espoused “Biblical morals and principles concerning human sexuality,” then damn near every evangelical church would be on the list.

Haters gonna hate.