SPLC faces lawsuit

[fortinbras]

The Southern Poverty Law Center is facing a defamation lawsuit from Virginia state representative Eugene Delgaudio over its designation of Delgaudio's alter ego organization, "The Public Advocate of the United States", as a hate group. Now that Delgaudio's re-election campaign is facing strong opposition, which often harps on the SPLC characterization of his group, he's launching a lawsuit about it.

http://www.leesburgtoday.com/news/delga ... f887a.html

Once upon a time, the SPLC sued The Public Advocate for its use of a photo of a same-sex wedding party in its promotional literature.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Adv ... ted_States
and some background on Delgaudio, who started The Public Advocate in 1981:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Delgaudio

I have followed Delgaudio's lackluster career as "The Public Advocate" for more than 20 years. I honestly thought he ought to be prosecuted for pretending to hold a federal office, as his group's name was frequently mistaken for something governmental. His group has come out against gay rights, immigrant rights, and a wide variety of progressive social programs, and has done so even when these had bi-partisan support in Congress. His group is singularly ineffective, except for providing the ultra-right propagandists with usable quotations that sound as if they come from an authoritative source. Evidently a good many of his Virginia constituents are unenthused with him.

[wserra]

According to the news article to which you link, that's not a "defamation lawsuit". It's not a lawsuit at all. It just says that Delgaudio served the SPLC with a subpoena for records as part of an ongoing lawsuit to throw him out.

[JamesVincent]

Looks like he is trying to discredit the SPLC use of the term "hate group" in connection with his own personal group Public Advocate. Since that is one of the charges mentioned in the recall he apparently chooses to fight that one.

[notorial dissent]

OK, confuzzed here, just what sort of "private business" is this, considering it is registered in DC as a non profit, and in VA as a foreign corporation, so how can it be Delgaudio "private business"? This thing reads more like a PAC than anything else as far as I can see.

At which point, at the very least as a non-profit if not a PAC, it becomes a public, and so it would seem that SPLC is well within their constitutional rights to, as they say, call it as they see it.

Also, since the corp is registered in DC and SLPC is registered out of AL, TBMK, I don't see him having much to go on as far as getting a subpoena, or anything else for that matter, also I'm betting SLPC has much better lawyers than he does. I really don't think this is a game he wants to play, as all he will be doing is handing more information to the group trying to be rid of him as it is.

[fortinbras]

The next step: The FBI has dropped the SPLC from its lists of affiliated terrorist watchers.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/03/shock ... og-partner

It is not entirely clear why this happened, but at least a bit of speculation that the SPLC had become a bit too quick to label as a "hate group" some organizations taking positions that only a decade or so ago were accepted fairly widely, such as anti-Gay groups and anti-Sharia/Jihadi groups. In particular, the FBI is (sort of) keeping an eye on at least some Islamic organizations and SPLC was quick to condemn anti-Muslim suspicions and rumors.

[fortinbras]

Follow-up:

The SPLC denies that the FBI has ditched it, and attributes this to a rightwing tealeaf reading of a very minor adjustment in publicity procedure;

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/03/27 ... y-l/198645

[bmxninja357]

it just so hard to take the splc seriously. considering their exorbitant salary's and inability to actually label real hate groups like antifa as such makes them irrelevant. like there fund raising lies. as well as mislabelling several groups and people wrongly costing jobs and causing many undue financial hardship. i think its time they got taken behind the shed and given the old yeller treatment so we can make way for a new group. this forum is actually far more accurate than the splc. at least here you are expected to back your claims up. many of us here have actually corrected mislabelled groups or members of groups.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNlO5JscuW4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5ArT_LMxVI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjVI3XDyeuE

i think its time we find a better place to seek information as the agenda is far to off base with reality.

peace,
ninj

[fortinbras]

As far as I can find, the threat by the so-called "Public Advocate for the United States" to sue the SPLC never materialized. There is no mention of such a case anywhere on Lexis. However the Public Advocate for the US was sued for defamation, invasion of privacy, other stuff, by a gay married couple in NJ because the PAFUS used the NJ couple's wedding photo in a leaflet it distributed against a Colorado candidate for the State Legislature (the PAFUS opposed same-sex marriage) - the SPLC assisted in the lawsuit.

The so-called Public Advocate for the United States, which maintained a DC mailing address and sort of hinted at being a govt agency, which it wasn't, has probably violated the law against impersonating a federal officer - a crime that is prosecuted even if the pretense is to an office that does not exist in reality. Delgaudio has been running this act for decades (mostly against gay rights or gun legislation) and yet the Dept of Justice has not stomped him. He lost his Virginia legislature seat in 2015 but the PAFUS is still operation:
http://www.publicadvocateusa.org/

[wserra]

If you want a good laugh from a short read, that a look at this blog entry about Eugene Delgaudio.

[Jeffrey]

Antifa doesn't qualify as a hate group, race or religious based hatred isn't their motivation.

[bmxninja357]

Antifa doesn't qualify as a hate group, race or religious based hatred isn't their motivation.

yeah i guess. they just hate straight white men with jobs.

peace,
ninj

[Arthur Rubin]

The question of whether AntiFa or SPLC is a hate group borders on politics. Neither qualifies as Sovereign. The alleged suit by this Sovereign against SPLC as a hate group brings it potentially into the scope of this forum, but be careful.

[grixit]

Seconded.

[davids]

Antifa doesn't qualify as a hate group, race or religious based hatred isn't their motivation.

yeah i guess. they just hate straight white men with jobs.

peace,
ninj

Yeah, there is a bit of the living with Mom aspect to the whole Antifa drama crowd.

But - I'm kinda thinking the Neos and some other aspects of what is commonly called the alt-right aren't so gainfully employed. So there is that.

[Gregg]

I'm damn close to shutting this discussion down.

[Pottapaug1938]

I'm damn close to shutting this discussion down.

Unless a post conforms to the standard, stated by Arthur Rubin, of limiting posts to a discussion of the suit by a Sovereign against the SPLC, alleging that the latter is a hate group, without commenting on whether or not the SPLC is actually a hate group, it should be deleted; and if there are too many of them, Gregg should save himself a lot of time deleting these posts, and shut this thread down.

[fortinbras]

It looks to me as if the lawsuit threatened in 2014 has not, into 2018, materialized.

In the meantime, and for a considerable period before 2014, Delgaudio, in his guise as "Public Advocate of the United States", has been operating a hate group (mostly hating gays) AND pretending to be a federal official, and soliciting money all the while. I am not sure how much more can be said on this topic.

[Pottapaug1938]

It looks to me as if the lawsuit threatened in 2014 has not, into 2018, materialized.

In the meantime, and for a considerable period before 2014, Delgaudio, in his guise as "Public Advocate of the United States", has been operating a hate group (mostly hating gays) AND pretending to be a federal official, and soliciting money all the while. I am not sure how much more can be said on this topic.

Agreed. Unless we have some fresh information, let's close it down.

[Pottapaug1938]

Perhaps a look into Delgaudio's other activities might be in order -- on another thread.

[Gregg]

and done