
New Home Speaker Mike Johnson had barely secured the gavel when leftist teams began attacking him for having beforehand labored at a premier spiritual liberty nonprofit legislation agency that has received quite a few instances earlier than the U.S. Supreme Court docket.
Leftist teams and considered one of Johnson’s Democratic colleagues within the Home famous his historical past as a lawyer with Alliance Protection Fund, now often called Alliance Defending Freedom. The Southern Poverty Regulation Middle, which gained its fame by suing Ku Klux Klan teams into chapter 11, has branded ADF a “hate group,” putting it on a “hate map” alongside Klan chapters.
Critics on the Proper and on the Left have defended ADF from this smear, however many on the Left cited it in slamming Johnson.
“MAGA Extremist Mike Johnson is just not match to guide the Home of Representatives,” Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., posted on X, the platform previously often called Twitter, earlier than Johnson received the speaker vote Wednesday. Amongst different issues, she faulted Johnson for having “labored beforehand for an [SPLC]-identified hate group.”
The Human Rights Marketing campaign, an influential LGBTQ group that compiles an “Equality Scorecard” that pushes manufacturers like Bud Mild and Goal to champion gay and transgender causes, additionally cited the SPLC’s accusation.
“New Speaker of the Home Mike Johnson is an election-denying extremist who’s as anti-LGBTQ+ as they arrive,” the HRC posted on X. The group faulted Johnson for having “launched a federal ‘Don’t Say Homosexual’ invoice, co-sponsored a gender-affirming care ban, [and] served as nationwide spokesperson for an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group.”
(Transgender activist teams use the time period “gender-affirming care” as a euphemism for experimental medical alterations with lifetime impacts to which critics say kids can’t present actually knowledgeable consent. The invoice Johnson launched, the Stop the Sexualization of Children Act of 2022, goals to ban the usage of federal funds for “any sexually-oriented program, occasion, or literature for kids beneath the age of 10.” Johnson’s critics branded {that a} “Don’t Say Homosexual” invoice alongside the identical traces that they demonized Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ invoice increasing parental rights in schooling.)
Residents for Accountability and Ethics in Washington additionally assailed Johnson for having “labored for Alliance Defending Freedom—designated a hate group by the SPLC.”
The Lincoln Project, a gaggle organized by former GOP strategists that spends most of its time attacking Republicans and have become infamous after greater than 20 males accused former chief John Weaver of sexual harassment, joined within the assaults.
“He needs to nullify same-sex marriage,” The Lincoln Project posted. “Earlier than Congress, Johnson labored as a lawyer for the Alliance Defending Freedom, an anti-LGBTQ+ group, and defended Louisiana’s same-sex marriage ban and anti-abortion legal guidelines.”
Accountable.US, a leftist group that has focused conservative Supreme Court justices, additionally criticized Johnson for his work at ADF, citing the SPLC. “Speaker-Nominee Johnson Comes From Recognized Hate Group Pushing Radical Authorized Agenda at Supreme Court docket,” the press release headline reads.
As I clarify in my guide “Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center,” the SPLC took this system it had used to bankrupt organizations related to the Ku Klux Klan and weaponized it towards conservative teams, partially to scare its donors into ponying up money and partially to silence ideological opponents.
Amid a racial discrimination and sexual harassment scandal wherein the SPLC fired its co-founder, a former worker referred to as the “hate” accusations a “extremely worthwhile rip-off.”
Even left-leaning allies of the SPLC, similar to former ACLU President Nadine Strossen and Navy Non secular Freedom Basis President Mikey Weinstein, have criticized the SPLC for branding ADF a “hate group.” ADF has received quite a few instances earlier than the Supreme Court docket, together with Masterpiece Cakeshop in 2018 and 303 Inventive this 12 months, two instances involving Christians who gladly serve LGBTQ prospects, however refuse to lend their inventive inventive assist to have a good time same-sex weddings.
A gunman used the “hate map” to focus on the Household Analysis Council for a terrorist assault in 2012. A number of years earlier than that, then-SPLC spokesman Mark Potok mentioned “our intention in life is to destroy these teams,” referring to organizations on the “hate group” checklist.
The SPLC lately added parental rights teams, similar to Mothers for Liberty and Mother and father Defending Schooling, to its “hate map,” branding them as “antigovernment extremist teams” which might be a part of an “anti-student inclusion motion.”
In response to the SPLC’s standards for an “anti-LGBTQ+ hate group,” as with ADF, the whole Roman Catholic Church ought to fall beneath the accusation. The SPLC cited a quote instantly from the Catechism of the Catholic Church as proof that the Ruth Institute—a small Louisiana nonprofit devoted to serving to victims of the sexual revolution—is a “hate group.”
Johnson didn’t reply to The Every day Sign‘s request for remark by publication time; nor did Chu. But, ADF did reply, defending Johnson’s report on the group and slamming the SPLC accusation.
“Whereas serving at Alliance Defending Freedom, Congressman Mike Johnson defended the rule of legislation and People’ most cherished liberties,” Kristen Waggoner, CEO, president, and common counsel at ADF, advised The Every day Sign in an announcement Thursday. “We congratulate and want him one of the best as he continues his service to our nation defending the Structure and all People’ foundational freedoms.”
“Alliance Defending Freedom is without doubt one of the nation’s most revered and profitable U.S. Supreme Court docket advocates working to protect the basic freedoms of speech and faith for all People,” Jeremy Tedesco, senior vp of company engagement and senior counsel at ADF, advised The Every day Sign. “We’ve received 15 instances on the Supreme Court docket since 2011, together with a victory in 2023.”
“ADF believes that every one individuals are made within the picture of God and that everybody is worthy of dignity and respect,” Tedesco added. “The Southern Poverty Regulation Middle’s ‘hate map’ targets teams with mainstream conservative and spiritual viewpoints that they disagree with. The SPLC is a thoroughly discredited, blatantly partisan activist outfit recognized for sexism, racism, and condoning home terrorism.”
“Their finish sport is tyranny, not tolerance,” he declared. “ADF will proceed to work day by day to construct a society the place life is cherished and guarded, and everybody can freely share their concepts, train their religion, and stay collectively peacefully regardless of completely different beliefs, opinions, and backgrounds.”
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