The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is fighting a subpoena which requests the “criteria, research and decision process used…” to designate the group Public Advocate of the United States as a “Hate Group,” as reported Friday at Leesburg Today.
The subpoena was filed on behalf of Loudoun County (Virginia) Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio, who is also the executive director of Public Advocate, targeted by the SPLC for their support of traditional marriage. Delgaudio is currently fighting a potential recall, which was initiated by the group “Sterling Deserves Better,” and consists in part of two “former political opponents,” who cited the SPLC’s hate group designation in their recall petition, as reported earlier this month at the local outlet, Leesburg Today.
The SPLC “is internationally known for tracking and exposing the activities of hate groups,” according to their website. But the criteria used for their hate designation is elusive and clearly biased against groups they refer to as the “radical right.”
In their 2012 Annual Report, for example, the SPLC declares,
“Over the past year, we confronted the forces of hate and exposed the activities of the radical right to law enforcement, the media and the pubic.”
In it’s objection to the subpoena, the SPLC charged Delgaudio with “…harassment given the fact that the documents are not discoverable or relevant” and claimed that the criteria requested consists of “confidential research.”
