Faith Front Page Politics U.S.LAW OF THE LAND
'Politically motivated' claims against Alabama judge tossed
'Shame on the SPLC'
Published October 22, 2016 at 3:44pm
A complaint that had been filed against Alabama Supreme Court Justice Tom Parker by the domestic terror-linked Southern Poverty Law Center has been dismissed by the state's Judicial Inquiry Commission.
"Shame on the SPLC for filing this politically motivated complaint against Justice Parker," said Mat Staver, chairman of Liberty Counsel, which represents Parker.
Parker was accused, after he was interviewed on American Family Radio about the U.S. Supreme Court's opinion on marriage, of violating the Canon 3(A)(6) of the state canons of judicial ethics.
The problem, Staver explained, is that the rule purports to prevent any judge in the state from making "any public comment about a pending or impending proceeding in any court" – even if the judge is not involved in the case and if the judge's comments "do not have a reasonable likelihood of affecting the outcome or impairing the fairness of that proceeding."
Liberty Counsel noted such a rule has been described by the American Bar Association as violating the First Amendment.
In fact, a lawsuit has been filed in federal court challenging the constitutionality of the rule. U.S. District Judge Keith Watkins, in the case, acknowledged the First Amendment issues that arise when SPLC, in a political season, attempts to use an agency of state government to suppress speech with which the SPLC disagrees. But the judge did not rule immediately.
"We are pleased that the complaint against Justice Tom Parker has been dismissed," said Staver. "The speech restrictive Judicial Canon clearly violates the First Amendment. The Canon is so broad that it prevents judges from commenting on any case pending anywhere in the county, even if they are teaching students in law school.
Get the Whistleblower Magazine's revelations about the SPLC, in its March 2015 edition of "The Hate Racket," the complete story of how one group fools government into equating Christians and conservatives with Klansmen and Nazis – and rakes in millions doing it.
"I call upon the Alabama Supreme Court and the legislature to change this unconstitutional speech restriction and the automatic removal provision," said Staver.
WND reported when the complaint was filed that if the JIC had filed a charge, Parker would have been suspended from office based only on the accusation.
That state practice also is under legal challenge.
The case developed as part of SPLC's war on traditional-marriage advocates in the state.
SPLC even briefly put Dr. Ben Carson, former GOP candidate for president and one of the most admired men in America, on its list of "haters" because of his views on marriage.
The group was linked to a domestic terror case in Washington, D.C., when a gunman, Floyd Corkins, relied on SPLC's "hate" list to attempt mass murder at the Family Research Council's office.
"On August 15, 2012, Floyd Corkins went to the Family Research Council with a gun and a bag filled with ammunition and Chick-fil-A sandwiches. His stated purpose was to kill as many employees of the Family Research Council as possible and then to smear Chick-fil-A sandwiches in their faces (because the founder of the food chain said he believed in marriage as a man and a woman). Fortunately, Mr. Corkins was stopped by the security guard, who was shot in the process. Corkins is now serving time in prison. Mr. Corkins admitted to the court that he learned of the Family Research Council by reading the SPLC's hate map," FRC documented.
Corkins was sentenced to prison for domestic terrorism after admitting on video he accessed SPLC's recommendations to pick a target for his attack. SPLC identified FRC as a hate group because it holds to a biblical definition of homosexuality.
WND reported a video showed Corkins entering the FRC offices and confronting Leo Johnson.
FRC officials repeatedly have explained that they adhere to a biblical perspective on homosexuality but are not "anti-gay."
"Consistent with his statement to the FBI, a … search of Corkins's family computer revealed that on the afternoon of Sunday, August 12, Corkins used the computer to visit the Southern Poverty Law Center's website, as well as the websites for the FRC and the second organization on his handwritten list. The FBI later recovered from Corkins's home several printed Mapquest and Google maps, dated August 12, 2012, for directions to the FRC and the second organization, as well as the pad of stationary paper used by Corkins to create his handwritten list of targets," the government explained in its court case against Corkins.
A separate attack by SPLC over marriage on another Alabama judge, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, has had a different result, although it remains on appeal.
The high court recently fired Moore's staff members after the Court of the Judiciary suspended Moore from office for the remainder of his term. The penalty is unprecedented and possibly illegal since the state requires a 9-0 vote to remove a judge and the court fell short of that mark.
The complaint centers on Moore's advisory to probate judges that an order from the state Supreme Court to refuse marriage licenses to same-sex couples remained in effect despite the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling establishing same-sex marriage.
SPLC's attack and abrupt change of course on Carson was described in a commentary by Joseph Farah, founder and editor of WND.
"Apparently, the racketeering outfit that poses as a 'progressive' civil liberties group realized it had crossed a bridge too far in its smear efforts against, quite possibly, the most respected black leader in America (and, yes, I include Barack Obama and all members of his administration and frequent White House visitors such as Al Sharpton)," he wrote.
"The group's stock-in-trade is raising hundreds of millions of dollars through fanning the flames of phantom threats posed almost exclusively by those who love America and its Constitution. The others are a collection of actual scum-of-the-earth racists, neo-Nazis and other certifiable lunatics who, through guilt by association, are intended to reflect badly on the liberty proponents and Christians and Jews on the list, who are the SPLC's real targets."
He noted SPLC posted Carson on its hate list then removed him.
"Think about how shameless SPLC really is: [retired Lt. Gen. Jerry] Boykin and [Tony] Perkins [both now with the Family Research Council] are still on the list despite the fact that the group inspired a domestic terrorist and would-be mass murderer to conduct an armed attack on their Family Research Council years ago with the intent of shooting and killing every single employee and leaving a Chik-fil-A sandwich on their corpses. That guy, by the way, now serving time in an attack that resulted in a non-fatal bullet wound to FRC's black security guard, never made it to the SPLC's 'hate' list, despite getting his marching orders from the group," Farah wrote.