A sweeping coalition of organizations says the Trump administration’s indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center is part of a broader effort to silence dissent and intimidate watchdog groups.
Civil rights organizations are sounding the alarm ahead of a May 20 House Judiciary Committee hearing targeting the Southern Poverty Law Center, warning that the proceeding is part of a broader campaign by the Trump administration and congressional Republicans to weaponize the federal government against dissenting voices and nonprofit watchdog groups.
“Congressional Republicans are aiding and abetting the Department of Justice’s campaign of retribution against civil rights organizations and anyone who dares disagree with them,” said Fatima Goss Graves, board chair of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, warning the hearing will be “a spectacle designed to further harm an organization that has spent 50 years tracking hate groups, infiltrating extremist networks, and dismantling violent white supremacist organizations.”
The hearing, scheduled for Wednesday at 10 a.m. ET, comes as more than 400 national, state and local organizations prepare to release a joint sign-on letter condemning the administration’s criminal charges against SPLC and urging Congress to investigate what advocates describe as escalating abuses of executive power targeting civil society organizations.
This is a coordinated strategy to consolidate power by seeking to eliminate institutions capable of challenging it.
A joint letter to Congress condemning the SPLC indictment
The coalition letter, Organized by The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and Nonprofits Together, describes the indictment against SPLC as “a naked attempt to weaponize the criminal justice system to silence speech and activities this administration dislikes.”
The hearing also comes just days after thousands of voting rights advocates gathered in Montgomery, Ala.—the same city where the SPLC is headquartered—on Saturday, May 16, for the “All Roads Lead to the South” national day of action. (Watch the entire Saturday stream here.)
Organizers and speakers connected attacks on voting rights, civil rights organizations and democratic participation as part of the same broader backlash. “The attacks on voting rights across the South are not isolated incidents,” said LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter. “They are part of a coordinated effort to weaken Black political power.”
The joint sign-on letter being released ahead of Wednesday’s hearing echoes that warning, describing the indictment against SPLC as “a coordinated strategy to consolidate power by seeking to eliminate institutions capable of challenging it.”
The letter will be added to this piece once it goes live Wednesday morning; read it and stream the hearing (below).
This is a playbook for silencing dissent that any administration can use, and it must be stopped before it becomes the norm.
Fatima Goss Graves
