A federal judge has tossed out a lawsuit filed by a hate group that in January sued a top civil rights organization over being designated a hate group. The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) accused the Southern Poverty Law Center “of conspiring to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act when they designated it as a hate group in 2016,” HuffPost reported. “The judge, however, said the suit improperly attempts to ‘shoehorn’ a defamation claim into the framework of a RICO case.”
It’s a fact that CIS has circulated writings by racists and other deplorables for years now. Back in 2017, the hate group’s leader, Mark Krikorian, admitted that his group “occasionally” distributed “pieces by writers who turned out to be cranks,” but a deeper dive by SPLC found “occasionally” actually meant 2,000 times, and “cranks” actually turned out to be anti-Semites and Holocaust deniers.
This group should never be quoted on immigration policy, but a recent report by Define American and the MIT Center for Civic Media found major newspapers, including The New York Times and The Washington Post, regularly do quote it. That should stop. These anti-immigrant ringleaders have also found a friend in the Trump administration, and several have been placed in top government posts, including agencies whose purposes include advocating for immigrants and refugees.
When it comes to this unsuccessful lawsuit, Krikorian “said in an email Monday that the group hasn’t yet decided whether to appeal,” HuffPost continued, and the SPLC “stands by its listing of CIS as an anti-immigrant hate group,” as it should. "As groups like Center for Immigration Studies continue to infect the mainstream with their hateful anti-immigrant rhetoric,” said interim president Karen Baynes-Dunning, “we will continue to call out their hate and bigotry whenever we see it."
