Defamation Lawsuit Against SPLC Hate Group Moves Forward

By Fred Elbel on 4 April 2023

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Dustin Inman

Dustin Inman was a sixteen-year-old American boy killed by an illegal alien in a traffic collision on Father's Day weekend in 2000. He was traveling with his parents to a weekend of fishing in the North Georgia mountains. His death was a direct result of government refusal to secure American borders and enforce American immigration law.

The driver of the car that killed Dustin, Gonzalo Harrell-Gonzalez, was in America illegally. He had obtained a North Carolina driver's license using his Mexican birth certificate and a Mexican Matricula Consular ID card. He is still at large.

Former Marine D.A. King founded the Dustin Inman Society in 2005 to fight illegal immigration in Georgia. King, whose adopted sister is Korean, financed his ongoing effort with his life savings. King's focus is illegal immigration, not individual races or ethnicities. The Dustin Inman Society board includes Black, Hispanic, and immigrant board members.

In 2011 the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) called King a "nativist." Yet they admitted the Dustin Inman Society wasn't a hate group. Heidi Beirich, SPLC, noted that: "Because he is fighting, working on his legislation through the political process, that is not something we can quibble with, whether we like the law or not..."

Then in February 2018 the SPLC changed their tune and listed D.A. King and the Dustin Inman Society as an anti-immigrant hate group. King said the SPLC's "goal was clearly to paint us as the extremists and to marginalize us in the eyes of state lawmakers and the media. That effort was largely successful."

King sued the SPLC on the basis of defamation. King is seeking a trial, a permanent injunction ordering the SPLC to remove its accusations, to issue a public apology and retraction, and to pay compensatory and punitive damages. King stated:

With the full knowledge that we are a coalition made up of Americans of diverse descriptions - including proud immigrants - the SPLC has repeatedly spread false and libelous accusations that DIS is somehow an "anti-immigrant hate group." While we educate Georgians on the need for state legislation aimed at deterring the organized crime of illegal immigration in Georgia, the SPLC has worked against passage of such measures as anti-enforcement lobbyists in the Georgia Capitol.

King cited 2007 remarks from Mark Potok, who at the time was editor-in-chief of the SPLC's Intelligence Report. King told The Daily Signal:

Potok made the SPLC's intentions on opposition clear when he admitted in a speech, 'I want to say plainly that our aim in life is to destroy these groups, to completely destroy them,'" King told The Daily Signal. "That was and is the goal in attacking me and the Dustin Inman Society. We are a bit flattered in that we operate on personal funds and small donations."

The SPLC filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. The motion to dismiss has been denied. This means that the lawsuit will proceed to the next phase: discovery, which could expose the inner workings of the SPLC. A court date has not yet been set.

The Dustin Inman Society has set up a GoFundMe page to help fight the SPLC in court. Your donation will be greatly appreciated.

Southern Poverty Law Center Admits Their Hate Map is Fiction

The Southern Poverty Law Center's motion to dismiss our defamation complaint has been denied, by D.A. King, Dustin Inman Society, 3 April 2023.

SPLC to Face the Music for 'Hate Group' Defamation as Lawsuit Clears Major Hurdle, by Tyler O'Neil, The Daily Signal, 4 April 2023:

The lawsuit alleges that the SPLC twisted statements from King and Fred Elbel, another member of the society’s board, out of context...

The SPLC also quotes Elbel's words - in which the board member claims to "hate 'em all," listing a broad swath of ethnic and other groups including White Anglo-Saxon Protestants - from a 2004 internal Sierra Club offshoot discussion group post Elbel says he intended as parody...

SPLC 'hate group' labeling of conservative groups gets legal scrutiny, by Breccan F. Thies, Washington Examiner, 6 April 2023.

Conservatives Wrongly Demonized as 'Hate Groups' May Get Justice at Last, by Tyler O'Neil, The Daily Signal, 21 April 2023

A Lawsuit Exposes the Southern Poverty Law Center's Lies, by Daniel Greenfield, FrontPage Magazine, 8 September, 2022. More in-depth information on the SPLC lawsuit.

The SPLC raises millions of dollars using false allegations of "hate." View the SPLC financial statement...

Southern Poverty Law Center’s ‘hate’ list suffers ‘monumental’ legal setback, The Washington Times, 1 May 2023.