Southern Poverty Law Center

Overview

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American nonprofit legal advocacy organisation founded in 1971 in Montgomery, Alabama, by attorneys Morris Dees and Joseph Levin, best known for suing white-supremacist groups into financial ruin and for tracking groups it designates as hate groups (Britannica; Associated Press). Under Dees’s leadership, the SPLC won several unprecedented lawsuits against hate organisations and their leaders, and substantial monetary awards against groups such as the United Klans of America and Aryan Nations forced some such organisations to disband (Britannica). The same designation power that made the SPLC influential also made it contested: its lists have drawn apologies and a multimillion-dollar settlement when it got a listing wrong, and in April 2026 a federal grand jury indicted the organisation itself, in a case that was still pending months later (Christian Post; Clearinghouse).

Founding and the damage-litigation strategy

Morris Dees, born in 1936 in Shorter, Alabama, became a successful entrepreneur in the direct-mail publishing business with Millard Fuller, later the founder of Habitat for Humanity, before selling the company in 1967 and committing himself to a law practice devoted to civil rights legislation (Britannica). The law firm he shared with Joseph Levin evolved into the SPLC in 1971 (Britannica). Dees’s early efforts helped integrate the Montgomery, Alabama, Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in 1969, before the SPLC itself existed, and the new organisation then made lawsuits holding white-supremacist organisations financially and criminally responsible for murders and other unlawful actions a central strategy (Britannica).

The strategy’s most famous result came in 1987, when the SPLC won a $7 million judgment against the United Klans of America on behalf of Beulah Mae Donald, whose son was murdered by KKK members in Mobile (Associated Press). A decade earlier in the organisation’s history, its office had been firebombed in 1983, and three Klansmen were later arrested and pleaded guilty (Associated Press). By 2017, tax records showed the organisation held some $450 million in assets, and it operated from a high-security building near the church where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. first served as a pastor (Associated Press). The Associated Press describes the law center as a nationally known nonprofit that monitors hate organisations and as a frequent target of conservative and far-right critics (Associated Press).

Era	What the SPLC did, as reported
1971 founding	Dees and Levin create the SPLC in Montgomery, Alabama, from their shared law firm (Britannica)
1980s damage litigation	$7 million judgment against the United Klans of America for Beulah Mae Donald (1987); office firebombed in 1983 (Associated Press)
2016 designations	ADF added to the anti-LGBT hate-group list, for SPLC’s stated reasons quoted below (DeSmog)
2018 reversal	Apology and about $3.3 million settlement to Nawaz and Quilliam (Christian Post)
2019 leadership crisis	Co-founder Dees fired; no specific reason given (Associated Press)
2026 prosecution	Federal indictment over alleged paid informants; dismissal motion denied August 7, 2026 (Clearinghouse)

Tracking hate groups — and the ADF designation

The SPLC is best known for tracking groups it considers hate organisations (Associated Press). The designation at the centre of this profile’s connection to the FactsLedger source article is its listing of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF): according to SPLC’s own account, as quoted and archived by DeSmog, the SPLC first added ADF to its list of anti-LGBT hate groups in 2016 (DeSmog). SPLC’s stated reasons, in its own words as reproduced by DeSmog, were ADF’s “propagation of known falsehoods about LGBT people,” its “demonization of LGBT people,” its “support of criminalization of gay sex in the U.S. and abroad,” and its “continued attempts to create state and local policies and legislation (so-called ‘religious liberty’ laws) that allow Christians to deny goods and services to LGBT people in the public sphere and marginalize LGBT students in schools” (DeSmog).

SPLC summarised ADF, again in its own words as reproduced by DeSmog, as “a legal advocacy and training group that has supported the recriminalization of sexual acts between consenting LGBTQ adults in the U.S. and criminalization abroad; has defended state-sanctioned sterilization of trans people abroad; has contended that LGBTQ people are more likely to engage in pedophilia; and claims that a ‘homosexual agenda’ will destroy Christianity and society” (DeSmog). Among the examples SPLC cited were ADF’s 2003 amicus briefs in Lawrence v. Texas supporting the retention of criminalisation of sodomy between consenting adults (DeSmog). This profile presents all of that strictly as SPLC’s characterisation: it is what SPLC says about ADF, not a finding of this profile, and ADF disputes the label, as recorded in the site’s ADF profile. Readers who want ADF’s own account should read that profile, which carries ADF’s founding story and litigation record with its own sourcing.

A listing reversed: Nawaz and Quilliam

The limits of the designation model showed in 2018, when the SPLC apologised to Maajid Nawaz for including him on a list of anti-Muslim extremists (Reason). Nawaz, described by Reason as a liberal who works to de-radicalise Islamists, had been listed in the SPLC’s 2016 Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists along with his organisation, the Quilliam Foundation, and with Somali-born human-rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Christian Post). As part of a settlement reached after Nawaz threatened a defamation suit, the SPLC agreed to pay Nawaz approximately $3.3 million to help fund anti-extremist activity (Christian Post). Reason rounds the figure to $3 million and notes that, in exchange, Nawaz would not sue for defamation (Reason).

In its apology, the SPLC said that after getting a deeper understanding of Nawaz’s and Quilliam’s views and hearing from others it respected, it recognised that they had made important contributions to promoting pluralism and that “they are most certainly not anti-Muslim extremists,” offering its sincerest apology to Nawaz, Quilliam, its supporters, and all those who depend on its work (Christian Post). Conservative critics quoted in the same report treated the settlement as proof the SPLC could not be trusted as an objective monitor, with Liberty Counsel’s Mat Staver saying no credible journalist should rely on it — a reaction reported here as critics’ opinion, not adopted as this profile’s judgment (Christian Post). Britannica notes a parallel criticism from outside the SPLC: that Dees drew few distinctions between white supremacists and groups supporting limits to immigration, controls on population growth, or the right to bear arms (Britannica).

The founder’s firing

In March 2019 the SPLC fired its co-founder Morris Dees, then 82, and announced it would hire an outside organisation to assess its workplace climate (Associated Press). President Richard Cohen’s statement gave no specific reason for the firing, saying only that as a civil-rights organisation the SPLC was committed to ensuring staff conduct reflects its mission and values, and that when one of its own fails to meet those standards it must take appropriate action (Associated Press). Dees told the Associated Press that the matter involved a personnel issue but did not elaborate, saying he wished the centre well and was proud of its work, and adding that the decision was not his (Associated Press). Dees had not overseen daily operations for several years, having transferred to an emeritus role and coming into the office only occasionally, and his biography appeared to have been removed from the SPLC’s website (Associated Press). Britannica likewise records that no cause was given for the termination, quoting the organisation’s statement that it was “committed to ensuring that the conduct of our staff reflects the mission of the organization and the values we hope to instill in the world” (Britannica).

The 2026 federal indictment: allegations, not findings

In April 2026, the United States Department of Justice filed criminal charges against the SPLC in the Middle District of Alabama via grand-jury indictment, in case number 2:26-cr-00139 (Clearinghouse). The indictment claimed that the SPLC, whose stated mission includes dismantling far-right extremist groups, paid informants to manufacture extremism between 2014 and 2023, principally by paying informants through covert bank accounts for safety and anonymity, including leadership members of far-right organisations (Clearinghouse). The charges included wire fraud, making false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment of money laundering (Clearinghouse). On May 26, 2026, the SPLC moved to dismiss the indictment for vindictive prosecution, an arraignment hearing was held on July 7, 2026, and on August 7, 2026, the court denied the motion to dismiss, holding that the SPLC had not shown evidence tending to prove the essential elements of vindictive prosecution (Clearinghouse). The case was ongoing as of August 7, 2026, with no relief granted and no prevailing party recorded (Clearinghouse). An indictment is an accusation, not a conviction: this profile reports the charges, the motions, and the status, and draws no conclusion about guilt.

What this profile does not claim

This profile does not claim that Alliance Defending Freedom “is” a hate group; it reports only that the SPLC designates it an anti-LGBTQ hate group, for SPLC’s stated reasons, and that ADF disputes the label. It does not claim any guilt or wrongdoing from the 2026 indictment, which was pending with no verdict recorded as of August 7, 2026. It does not give a reason for Morris Dees’s 2019 firing, because the SPLC gave none. It does not state current SPLC leadership, budget, or headcount figures, because none appeared in a fully read source beyond the dated 2017 asset figure. And it does not rely on SPLC’s own website directly: splcenter.org was blocked to this profile’s text fetcher, so SPLC’s ADF characterisation is used only as quoted and archived by DeSmog, a limitation the parent reconciliation pass may strengthen with a direct read.