'Radical Activist': Family Research Council, Other Conservatives Seek to Block Biden Judicial Nominee for SPLC Ties
President Joe Biden's nominee to serve as a U.S. Circuit Court Judge for the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has come under fire from the Family Research Council (FRC) and other conservative groups.
Nancy Abudu, the strategic litigation director for the now-controversial Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), was nominated by Biden for a seat to the appellate court on Jan. 10.
Earlier this month, the FRC and 50 individuals and organizations sent a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-IA) in opposition to Biden's nomination of Abudu to the 11th circuit.
Writing about Abudu's current employer, the SPLC, the coalition of conservative groups wrote, "Abudu works for a disreputable organization that has no business being a feeder for positions to any judicial office – not even of a traffic court – let alone the second-highest court system in the United States."
"She is a political activist, not a jurist, and is unfit to serve at the federal appellate level," the coalition warned.
The letter also addressed the SPLC's "infamous" activities. The coalition says the once esteemed organization has become problematic "for its decades-long managerial corruption and notorious for unscrupulously designating its political opponents as 'hate groups' or 'extremists.'"
"These destructive accusations have done real harm to many people. In the first conviction under the post-9/11 District of Columbia terrorism statute, the convicted terrorist was shown to have been motivated by the SPLC's 'hate group' designation and related identifying information. In that case, SPLC materials facilitated a troubled young man's delusional, and thankfully unsuccessful, plan to commit mass murder. Using the SPLC 'hate map,' this native of northern Virginia targeted the Family Research Council (FRC) and two other nearby groups in August 2012 for having beliefs supporting traditional marriage," the letter points out.
As CBN News reported, on August 15, 2012, Floyd Lee Corkins stormed into the Family Research Council's Washington offices intending to kill. He wounded the building manager before he was stopped. A bullet hole still remains in a console in the lobby.
After his arrest, Corkins told the FBI where he heard about the Family Research Council's Washington offices. On FBI video of his interrogation, Corkins says, "Southern Poverty Law lists anti-gay groups. I found them online, did a little bit of research, went to the website, stuff like that."
After pleading guilty in 2013, Corkins was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
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The SPLC continues to list the FRC as a hate group on their website even though the FRC says it has made repeated requests for correction.
As CBN News has reported, once upon a time, the Southern Poverty Law Center served as a champion in the civil rights struggle. It's said that the SPLC helped put the Ku Klux Klan out of business. Klan membership used to be in the millions. Today it's only a few thousand.
Other SPLC targets have included Dr. Ben Carson – who was later removed from its hate list – female genital mutilation victim Hirsi Ali, and even small charities like the Ruth Institute, whose mission is to help families and children. The Ruth Institute said, "If this makes us a 'hate group,' so be it."
Among the list of Christian groups on the SPLC's Hate Map are many local churches. It's usually because they oppose the LGBTQ agenda.
FRC Executive Vice President General Jerry Boykin doesn't pull any punches, telling CBN News, "First of all, the SPLC, you have to understand, is probably one of the most evil groups in America. They've become a money-making machine and they've become an absolute Marxist, anarchist organization."
Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal group, is also on the so-called "hate list". Kerri Kupec, ADF legal counsel, and communications director said, the Southern Poverty Law Center once did good work, "but the SPLC lost its way a long time ago."
Kupec dismisses the SPLC as a "direct mail scam," but marvels at the SPLC's revenues, with assets listed at $315 million.
"I have never heard of a group with 'poverty' in its name that has so much money," Kupec said.
Mass shooter James T Hodgkinson, who sniped House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and injured several others at a congressional softball practice in 2017, had "liked" the Southern Poverty Law Center's Facebook page.
The SPLC later admitted, "We're aware that the SPLC was among hundreds of groups that the man identified as the shooter 'liked' on Facebook. I want to be as clear as I can possibly be: The SPLC condemns all forms of violence."
