Attorney Charles King is requesting all research, electronic or written correspondence, witness testimony, and “all staff memorandums and writings of any kind,” including minutes and videos of staff meetings, that were used by SPLC to come to the conclusion that Public Advocate is a “hate group.”
Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio (Loudoun County, Va. Board of Supervisors)
A local official in Virginia has subpoenaed the Montgomery, Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the SPLC Task Force on Hate in the Public Sphere for the criteria it uses to designate other organizations as “hate groups.”
The subpoenas were filed February 28th in Loudoun County Circuit Court. They request “all written criteria, guidelines, bylaws or rules used by Southern Poverty Law Center to designate organizations or groups as ‘hate groups’ from the inception of the Southern Poverty Law Center to the present date.” (See Delgaudio_Vs-SPLC_Inc-.pdf & Delgaudio Vs. SPLC Taskforce.pdf)
Leesburg, Va. attorney Charles King filed the subpoenas on behalf of four-term incumbent Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio (R-Sterling), who is battling an effort to remove him from office under a rarely used Virginia law that allows elected officials to be ousted for “[a] neglect of duty, [b] misuse of office, or [c] incompetence in the performance of duties.”
The designation of Public Advocate of the United States, the conservative 501(c)(4)group Delgaudio runs, as a “hate group” by the SPLC was specifically cited in the complaint against him filed in court:
“The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) charged that Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio heads a gay-bashing ‘hate group’ called ‘Public Advocate’ and the charge is indisputable; Mr. Delgaudio has merged his function as an elected official of this County with his advocacy for this ‘hate group,’ Public Advocate.
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