The Alabama-based group made the announcement on Tuesday, saying President Donald Trump's administration appears to be preparing legal action against it or some of its employees.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has faced intense criticism from conservatives, who have accused it of unfairly maligning conservative organizations as extremist groups because of their viewpoints. The center is well known for putting the label "hate group" on organizations which take a conservative point of view on public policy issues dealing with such things as voting regulations and illegal immigration.
The center came under fresh scrutiny after the assassination last year of conservative activist Charlie Kirk brought renewed attention to its characterization of the group that Kirk founded and led. The center included a section on that group, Turning Point USA, in a report titled “The Year in Hate and Extremism 2024” that described the group as “A Case Study of the Hard Right in 2024.”
FBI Director Kash Patel said last year that the center had been turned into a “partisan smear machine,” and he accused it of defaming “mainstream Americans” with its “hate map.”
House Republicans hosted a hearing centered on the Southern Poverty Law Center in December, saying it coordinated efforts with President Joe Biden's Democratic administration "to target Christian and conservative Americans and deprive them of their constitutional rights to free speech and free association.”
