Liberty Counsel Appeals “Hate Group” Ruling

Via press release:

Liberty Counsel filed an appeal to the Court of Appeals challenging the district court’s dismissal of its lawsuit against GuideStar. Liberty Counsel’s lawsuit challenges GuideStar over its false and defamatory “hate group” label that it placed on GuideStar’s Liberty Counsel page. The lawsuit charges GuideStar violated the federal Lanham Act, along with state law violations of Interference with Business Expectancy and Defamation.

The lower court ruled that the republication of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) “hate group” label was not “commercial speech” under the Lanham Act, and thus dismissed the federal claim. Without the federal claim, the court never reached the state law claims.

That ruling is based on an incorrect view of the law and the allegations pled in the suit. When GuideStar placed the “hate group” label on Liberty Counsel and more than 40 other nonprofit organizations, the same page solicited financial payments to enhance GuideStar membership. Moreover, GuideStar intended to cause financial harm to Liberty Counsel and the other nonprofit groups.

Earlier this week Liberty Counsel head Mat Staver compared his group to Holocaust victims, saying that calling them a hate group is “like the Nazis did to the Jews.”