Michigan’s Democrat attorney general cited the Southern Poverty Law Center’s “hate map” when announcing a “hate-crimes unit” in 2019, and after one of the conservative groups on the map sued, the AG’s office won’t say whether it will refuse to cite the SPLC in the future.
The American Freedom Law Center, a Judeo-Christian public interest law firm that the SPLC calls an “anti-Muslim hate group” because it warns against radical Islam, sued Michigan AG Dana Nessel and Agustin Arbulu, then-director of the state’s Department of Civil Rights. Nessel and Arbulu had issued a press release in February 2019, citing the SPLC map. Nessel said she was “establishing a hate-crimes unit” in order “to fight against hate crimes and the many hate groups which have been allowed to proliferate in our state.”
After a lengthy court delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a district court granted Nessel’s motion for summary judgment, ruling against the American Freedom Law Center in August. The court ruled that the center lacked standing to bring the suit because it could not demonstrate concrete harm from the government, citing the SPLC accusation. AFLC appealed, and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals heard the case on Thursday.
Nessel Won’t Swear Off SPLC
During oral arguments, the judge asked Assistant Solicitor General Kyla Barranco, representing Nessel, whether the AG’s office would commit to not publishing the SPLC’s “hate map” again.
“Is the state committing to not publishing this list again?” the judge asked.
“Your honor, they don’t have any intention to, I can tell you that,” Barranco replied. “And I can tell you that the attorney general will be out of office in eight months.”
Barranco noted that Nessel’s office removed the press release with the “hate map” from the website in 2020, and the hate-crimes unit has not prosecuted AFLC.
Another judge asked whether Nessel considers AFLC to be a “hate group.”
“Your honor, she was not deposed in this case, so there’s no testimony on what she thinks,” Barranco replied. “I don’t think that she believes that they are a hate group. I think she knows that they are on the Southern Poverty Law Center‘s website, but whether that means that they are a hate group or not, she has never communicated that to me.”
“It is not my understanding that she believes they are a hate group,” she added.
The Daily Signal reached out to Nessel’s office, asking if the attorney general would pledge not to cite the SPLC “hate map” or its “hate group” list for the remainder of her time in office. Nessel’s office did not respond by publication time.
Similarly, a judge asked Heather Meingast, who represented Michigan Civil Rights Director John Johnson, whether the department would commit to avoid using the SPLC list of “hate groups.”
“There’s no indication that there’s any intent to use this website again,” Meingast responded.
The department did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment by publication time.
Also, during oral arguments, a judge asked Barranco whether AFLC would have standing to bring the case to trial if it could prove that a donor had decided to withdraw a $15 donation due to Nessel citing the SPLC “hate map.”
“I think that would perhaps be enough to get it to trial,” Barranco said. She added, however, that AFLC would have to trace the loss of the donation to Nessel’s statement, not the SPLC’s attack.
Robert Muise, co-founder and senior counsel at AFLC, told The Daily Signal that he planned to submit evidence to that effect.
The SPLC ‘Hate Map’
The SPLC gained its reputation by suing Ku Klux Klan groups into bankruptcy in the 1980s. Now, the SPLC publishes a “hate map” that plots mainstream conservative and Christian groups alongside Klan chapters, suggesting that a similar hatred drives them.
The SPLC’s education arm, Learning for Justice, promotes critical race theory (the lens that claims America is systemically racist and needs fundamental reform) and transgender ideology in schools, while the SPLC puts parental rights groups opposing these ideologies on the “hate map.”
A terrorist used the SPLC’s map to target the Family Research Council for an attempted mass shooting in 2012, but the building manager foiled the attack. The shooter received a 25-year prison sentence.
The SPLC long defended itself from accusations that it is “anti-Christian” by noting that it did not put the Christian ministry Focus on the Family on the “hate map,” but the center added the organization last year.
In 2019, amid a racial discrimination and sexual harassment scandal, the SPLC fired its co-founder, Morris Dees, and staff formed a union. In 2024, amid a round of layoffs, the SPLC’s union accused the center of engaging in “union-busting.”
Despite this, the Biden administration developed close ties with the SPLC. The Biden White House hosted SPLC leaders and staff, President Joe Biden elevated an SPLC attorney to a federal judgeship, and the Justice Department brought in SPLC staff to train prosecutors on the “anti-LGBTQ movement.”
