RNC Puts Forward Resolution Contesting Southern Poverty Law Center’s Legitimacy

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus speaks at the annual RNC winter meeting in Washington on Jan/ 24, 2014. Win McNamee/Getty Images

The Republican National Committee (RNC) put forth a resolution refuting the legitimacy of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), calling the nonprofit legal advocacy group “a far-left organization with an obvious bias.”

“The SPLC is a radical organization,” the resolution states, challenging the legitimacy of the organization to identify hate groups. “The federal government should not view this organization as a legitimate foundation equipped to provide actionable information to DHS or any other government agency.”

The resolution goes on to say that the SPLC “puts conservative groups or voices at risk of attack” and has mobilized people to act violently toward those it has labeled as belonging to “hate groups.”

The resolution came ahead of the start of the Republican National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Monday and intensified an ongoing feud between the SPLC and conservative groups.

The SPLC referred The Epoch Times to a written statement the organization put out Monday in response to the RNC’s resolution.

Margaret Huang, the group’s president and chief executive, said the resolution was designed to “excuse the Trump administration’s history of working with individuals and organizations that malign entire groups of people—including Black Lives Matter advocates, immigrants, Muslims and the LGBTQ community—with dehumanizing rhetoric.”

The resolution is the latest clash between conservative groups and the SPLC and over the Alabama-based organization’s list of hate groups. The RNC, in the resolution, accuses the SPLC of pursuing a partisan agenda because it has labeled the pro-family, pro-life organization The Family Research Council (FRC) as a hate group, saying the label led to the shooting at the FRC building in 2012.

The SPLC, celebrated by many on the left, denied the RNC’s accusation, saying that groups with “beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics” make their list and in their statement, accused President Donald Trump and his administration of “giving comfort to hate groups.”

The RNC also put forth resolutions defending the Christopher Columbus holiday, condemning “cancel culture,” and reaffirming its support for Trump.

The SPLC was founded in 1971 and according to their webpage “stands up for the powerless, the exploited and other victims of discrimination and hate.”