We defeated the SPLC — but this dangerous group appealed and filed an outrageous brief

For over a decade, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has attacked Liberty Counsel with “lawfare” via a frivolous lawsuit with SPLC's client, Janet Jenkins, demanding we pay her 200 BILLION dollars (That’s double Bill Gates’ entire net worth, by the way).

The SPLC claimed that Liberty Counsel helped Jenkins’ former civil union partner, Lisa Miller, and Lisa's biological daughter flee the country. Nothing could be further from the truth. The federal court agreed with us, but the SPLC has just filed a brief that makes my blood pressure rise.

After a decade and more than 11,000 hours, 25 depositions, and thousands of exhibits, Liberty Counsel confronted every lie from the SPLC and Jenkins. I have never seen such dishonesty as in this case. On April 1, 2025, a federal court agreed with us. But the SPLC appealed the case, and on Thanksgiving Eve, filed a brief full of lies that totally ignores the record evidence. They’ve seen all the evidence. They know they can’t win. But they are appealing anyway in an effort to “destroy” Liberty Counsel.

This week we will file our legal response. Pray for total victory! 

We need your help to DEFEAT the SPLC! Support our legal fund today and let the 2026 Challenge Grant DOUBLE your impact!

Back in the 1970s, the SPLC focused on exposing what was left of the Ku Klux Klan. But the end of the 1980s, the KKK had been bankrupted and had largely disappeared. 

The SPLC had won. But by eradicating the KKK, the SPLC had nothing left to fundraise against, so the group created its ever-evolving “Hate Map” to label good organizations, like Liberty Counsel, as “extremists” and “hate” groups. 

Since that time, a number of SPLC employees have come forward to expose what they say is really going on at the organization, calling the organization a “highly profitable scam” that is “ripping off donors.” 

In an exposé published in The New Yorker, former employee Bob Moser said he and other employees suffered tremendous “guilt” over the SPLC’s shady tactics, saying, “We were part of the con, and we knew it.” 

The SPLC has been racked with controversy over the years, including employee accusations of sexual harassment and racial discrimination. In 2019, a group of staffers issued an open letter accusing the organization of having a “systemic culture of racism and sexism,” noting that it was almost entirely led by white men and that women and black minorities were simply considered “the help.” 

Many of the SPLC’s “hate” designations just don’t make sense. But the constant addition of “new” hate groups helps the organization increase fundraising by claiming that “hate” is on the rise.

Help us battle the REAL “hate group” by supporting our legal fund. 

Last year, the SPLC claimed “hate” had increased by over 30%. But that “increase” was only because the SPLC added peaceful organizations like Moms for Liberty and Turning Point to its list.

Our work in exposing the SPLC for the hatemongers they are helped the FBI and businesses like Salesforce to sever ties with the group.

But, perhaps in retaliation, the SPLC is continuing to pursue this frivolous lawsuit designed to tie up our time and bankrupt our organization.

In April 2025, a Vermont federal judge ruled in favor of LC on every point, dismissing SPLC’s claims as meritless. This decision dismantled the SPLC’s allegations and cleared Liberty Counsel’s name.

But the SPLC just won’t stop. Despite having ZERO evidence of wrongdoing on our part, the SPLC appealed this case to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, if for no other reason than to keep us in court, depleting our legal fund, and spending precious attorneys’ time defending us against these baseless allegations.

Mark Potok, then SPLC’s senior fellow, clearly stated the organization’s motive: “I want to say plainly that our aim is to destroy these groups, to completely destroy them.” 

On another occasion, Potok restated that the SPLC’s mission is “trying to wreck the groups, and we are very clear in our head, this is — we are trying to destroy them ... as a political matter, to destroy them.”

The SPLC has been using its billion-dollar endowment to hire armies of lawyers to bury our lawyers under mountains of paperwork — all designed to prevent us from doing our real work — defending life, religious liberty, and the natural family. 

For years, the SPLC has tried to destroy us. Now SPLC is trying to bankrupt us. We will not be intimidated. Their lawsuit is frivolous, and the SPLC should be sanctioned. But we need your help to fight back.  We have spent many more hours preparing our 75-page opposition brief. Pray for resounding victory. 

Donate now to DEFEAT the SPLC!

THANK YOU for standing with us in this fight!

“The LORD will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways” (Deut. 28:7).