A federal judge dismissed a conservative nonprofit’s defamation lawsuit against the Southern Poverty Law Center Wednesday, reversing a previous judge’s theory of the case.

Critics say the SPLC routinely smears mainstream conservative and Christian groups by placing them on a “hate map” with chapters of the Ku Klux Klan. D.A. King, founder of the Dustin Inman Society, sued the center for defamation after it branded his Georgia-based organization—which opposes illegal immigration—an “anti-immigrant hate group.”

Judge W. Keith Watkins of the Middle District of Alabama allowed the defamation case to move forward in 2023, but Judge Corey L. Maze of the Northern District of Alabama later took the case.

After discovery—the legal process of acquiring documents to prove a case—Maze ruled Wednesday that most of King’s claims fell outside the statute of limitations, and that King further failed to prove the center acted with “actual malice” in re-publishing the “hate group” accusation. King died last year, but his estate is a plaintiff in the case.

Harry Mihet, chief litigation counsel for Liberty Counsel and one of King’s attorneys, told The Daily Signal that Judge Maze took the wrong approach to the case.

“I think the first judge who looked at this issue got it exactly right and the court currently got it exactly wrong,” Mihet told The Daily Signal in a phone call Thursday.

“The first judge looked at this in careful detail and nothing’s changed since. Whether something is time barred is a matter of law, so that should not have been affected by the facts in discovery.”

Watkins’ Ruling on the SPLC

King sued in April 2022, meaning the SPLC’s initial “hate group” accusation in 2018 fell outside of Alabama’s statute of limitations.

However, the center has repeated its accusation each year since, so Judge Watkins ruled as timely the accusation published in 2021.

Watkins also found that, because the SPLC initially stated in 2011 that the Dustin Inman Society was not a “hate group” before reversing course, the center may have smeared the society despite knowing that it was not an “anti-immigrant hate group.”

Defamation cases face high hurdles due to the Supreme Court’s precedents from New York Times v. Sullivan (1964) onward.

Watkins found the SPLC’s specific claim that the society—which has legal immigrants on its board—”poses as an organization concerned about immigration issues, yet focuses on vilifying all immigrants” likely met the defamation standard of “actual malice,” where the defendant publishes a provably false statement while likely suspecting the statement was false.

Since the SPLC uses this claim to support its “hate group” designation, republished every year, Watkins ruled the claim did not fall outside the statute of limitations.

Maze’s Reversal

Yet Judge Maze reversed the decision, holding that the initial 2018 “hate group” designation, and the subsequent “extremist profile” explaining it, fell outside the statute.

Maze found only one claim timely—the 2021 “hate group” accusation—and he ruled that King failed to show the SPLC acted with “actual malice,” because he had no evidence that the SPLC staffer who made the 2021 decision, Keegan Hankes, had reason to doubt the truth of the accusation.

Maze wrote that the SPLC’s claim that the society vilifies all immigrants “is non-actionable rhetorical hyperbole,” the kind of “loose, figurative language that no reasonable person would believe presented facts.” 

What Went Wrong?

Mihet, King’s attorney, accused Judge Maze, a Republican and appointee of President Donald Trump, and his magistrate judge of defending the SPLC.

“They really hamstrung our hands in discovery in terms of what we could ask and receive from the SPLC,” the attorney told The Daily Signal. “They protected the SPLC vehemently.”

“Now he complains that we didn’t show him more evidence in discovery,” Mihet added. “It’s because he and his magistrate carefully circumscribed the scope of discovery.”

Mihet said he aimed to reveal a pattern of the SPLC smearing conservatives, but the judge would not allow “this line of questioning.”

Todd McMurtry, King’s lead attorney, told The Daily Signal he has not yet decided whether to appeal the ruling.

“We will review the decision and evaluate next steps,” he said.

The SPLC did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment.

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