‘RIGHT OUT OF 1984’: Judeo-Christian Law Firm Sues Michigan AG for Attacking Free Speech by Endorsing ‘Hate Group’ Smear

The American Freedom Law Center is asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to grant oral arguments in its First Amendment lawsuit against Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel for the “irreparable harm” of her endorsing the Southern Poverty Law Center’s claim that AFLC is a “hate group.”

“From the very beginning, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has politicized and weaponized her office and abused her government authority to target political opponents,” AFLC co-founder Robert Muise told The Daily Signal in a statement Wednesday. 

“Her use of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s ‘hate group’ list as a matter of public policy to identify organizations, mostly conservative Christian and Jewish organizations, for her propaganda attacks and threats of surveillance are detrimental to the rights and freedoms of individuals in our free society,” Muise added. “Indeed, this is right out of the pages of George Orwell’s famous novel, 1984, and it is unconstitutional.” 

The case traces back to a 2019 press release Nessel published, along with Michigan Department of Civil Rights then-Director Agustin Arbulu, announcing a “Hate Crimes Unit” that would “fight against hate crimes and the many hate groups … in our state.” The announcement linked to the SPLC’s list of “hate groups,” which puts conservative and Christian organizations on a “hate map” alongside largely defunct chapters of the Ku Klux Klan.

The Standing Dispute

AFLC sued, claiming Nessel’s endorsement of the SPLC accusation “irreparably harmed” its reputation. (The lawsuit also involves Arbulu’s successor, John Johnson Jr.)

While District Judge Paul L. Maloney (a George W. Bush appointee) allowed the case to move to discovery in January 2020, he reversed course in July.

Maloney more recently ruled that AFLC lacked standing because it failed to state a claim of concrete harm that could be resolved in court.

He noted that the Hate Crimes Unit claims it does not investigate groups, but only individuals; and that the Michigan Department of Civil Rights did not end up creating a database of “hate groups.” Maloney also ruled that AFLC did not demonstrate specific concrete harm from the press release over and above the harm caused by the SPLC’s accusation, which dates to 2015.

In its brief asking the Sixth Circuit Appeals Court to grant oral arguments in the case, AFLC uses Maloney’s own words against him. The group claims Maloney “correctly ruled” that AFLC established standing.

AFLC claims that “as representatives of the state government, Defendants’ official endorsement of the SPLC’s list of hate groups constitutes a concrete and particular reputational injury to [AFLC].”

Furthermore, AFLC says the court can resolve the issue by enjoining Nessel and Johnson “from endorsing the SPLC’s hate list and applying the ‘hate group’ accusation to [AFLC], as well as expunging all governmental records that apply this designation to [AFLC].”

What’s the Harm?

AFLC claims Nessel and Johnson “placed the power of the state’s government, with its authority, presumed neutrality, and assumed access to all the facts, behind SPLC’s designation of [AFLC] as a ‘hate group.’ This government endorsement has exacerbated the harm that the ‘hate group’ label has already caused, and continues to cause, [AFLC].”

Critics say the SPLC uses its “hate group” accusation as a weapon to further its own agenda by silencing those who disagree. The SPLC leverages its reputation of suing Ku Klux Klan groups into bankruptcy to attack conservatives and Christians, putting opponents of its agenda on a “hate map” with Klan chapters—a map the SPLC says reveals “the infrastructure upholding white supremacy.”

AFLC, a public-interest law firm, defends the First Amendment rights of conservative Christians and Jews. The SPLC brands AFLC an “anti-Muslim hate group,” due to co-founder David Yerushalmi’s warnings against radical Islam.

A terrorist used the SPLC “hate map” to target the Family Research Council for an attempted mass shooting in 2012, and the SPLC put Turning Point USA on the “hate map” earlier this year, just months before the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

Big Tech companies that previously used the SPLC to screen for “hate” have distanced themselves from the group, and the FBI also separated from the SPLC, with Director Kash Patel calling it a “partisan smear machine.”

Does the Hate Crimes Unit Investigate Groups?

In a sworn deposition, Nessel said, “because the Hate Crimes Unit does not investigate hate groups, and the Hate Crimes Unit hasn’t researched or investigated the Southern Poverty Law Center’s designation of [AFLC] as a hate group,” she “cannot say whether [AFLC] is a hate group or whether the Southern Poverty Law Center’s designation is correct.”

Yet AFLC notes that the Hate Crimes Unit did indeed investigate an organization—namely Church Militant, also known as St. Michael’s Media.

AFLC claims that the government endorsement of the “hate group” accusation—coupled with the suggestion that Michigan’s law enforcement would investigate “hate groups”—led the media to brand AFLC a “hate group” and scared AFLC’s donors, harming the group financially. While the press release disappeared from the Michigan government’s website in 2020, that document and others remain in official records.

“By threatening investigations and surveillance of private citizens, such as [AFLC], on account of their dissident political views, [Nessel and Johnson] have violated the Constitution,” the AFLC brief argues.

Nessel’s office did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment by publication time. The Michigan Department of Civil Rights declined to comment on pending litigation.

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