A key player behind what has been described as an orchestrated attack on conservative justices on the Alabama Supreme Court is now, himself, on the defense after being named in an Alabama Bar Association complaint for allegedly making “unethical statements” about his targets.
The complaint, of which WND obtained a copy this week, names Southern Poverty Law Center chief Richard Cohen, who is paid more than $300,000 a year to run the nonprofit organization.
The complaint filed by lawyers Trent Garmon and Holly Garmon was submitted to the Alabama State Bar Disciplinary Commission and alleges Cohen repeatedly has violated Rules of Professional Conduct, Rule 8.2, which states, “A lawyer shall not make a statement that the lawyer knows to be false or with reckless disregard as to its truth or falsity concerning the qualifications or integrity of a judge, adjudicatory officer or public legal officer, or of a candidate for election or appointment to judicial or legal office.”
Additionally, the complaint explains, “The first official comment to the rule states that the assessments lawyers make regarding ‘the personal or professional fitness’ of those seeking or holding public judicial or legal office are taken into consideration when determining whether or not those people are appointed. Therefore, false and/or reckless statements is understood as having a negative effect on the public perception of the administration of justice.
“And is clearly unethical.”
A WND request to the SPLC for a comment late Thursday did not generate a response.
But the complaint explains Cohen, in statements that were derogatory to state Supreme Court Chief Justice Moore, said:
- Moore was “confusing his personal religious beliefs with his duty to uphold both state and federal law.”
- Of making “improper comments about impending cases.”
- Of having “lack of faithfulness to the law.”
- Of “disrespect for the integrity of the judiciary.”
- Of “thumbing his nose at federal courts and federal law.”
- Of ‘wrapping himself in demagoguery to further his political career.”
“This is clearly a statement drawing into question the integrity of the chief justice,” the complaint explains.
- Cohen also charged Moore’s actions were “unethical, irresponsible, and lawless.”
- He said Alabama elected Moore “to be a judge, not a pastor.”
- Through media reports, Cohen said Moore was “using the religion issue to further his political career, just as Wallace used the race issue to further his.”
- Called Moore a “religious zealot.”
- Accused Moore of believing “that he is a law unto himself.”
- And through the SPLC, Cohen accused Moore of being “intoxicated with his own sense of self-righteousness.”
- And “not seeming to understand that we’re a nation of laws, not men.”
- He charged that Moore “hadn’t learned his lesson.”
- And he described Moore as “unfit for office.”
“Our chief justice as elected by the voters of Alabama deserves the respect, honor and dignity the Rules of Professional Conduct afford notwithstanding any disagreement as to legal positions held by Cohen and the SPLC,” the complaint states.
“Based upon the clear public statements referenced herein, Mr. Cohen has violated Rule 8.2 repeatedly, recklessly, and arguably maliciously,” the complaint states.
The SPLC already had a history of questionable statements and actions. It routinely applies a “hate” label to those who disagree with its politics, including former GOP presidential hopeful Dr. Ben Carson, a label it hastily withdrew a short time later.
Liberty Counsel, who also has been targeted by the SPLC, said in a report last fall, “By falsely and recklessly labeling Christian ministries as ‘hate groups,’ the SPLC is directly responsible for the first conviction of a man who intended to commit mass murder targeted against a policy organization in Washington, D.C.
“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.”
WND reported a video showed Corkins entering the FRC offices and confronting Leo Johnson.
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Corkins later was sentenced to prison for domestic terrorism. It was during an interview with FBI officers when Corkins fingered the Southern Poverty Law Center for his inspiration.
Central to the case, according to the government’s document, was that Corkins “had identified the FRC as an anti-gay organization on the Southern Poverty Law Center website.”
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.
Moore now is heading for trial before the Alabama Court of the Judiciary on a complaint supported by the SPLC that he acted improperly when he told state judges the state Supreme Court still was deliberating a case that came up before the U.S. Supreme Court created same-sex “marriage.”
Moore said he told the judges that the state court’s previous orders still were in effect until a followup ruling, which came a few months later.
Moore responded to the SPLC’s complaint with a federal court lawsuit over the violations of his constitutional rights embedded in the procedures the SPLC used. A decision is pending now on whether that will be moved up to an appeals court.
In defense of Moore, Liberty Counsel charged that the SPLC launched a political attack on him because of his stance on marriage, not because there was any ethical lapse.
At the time, Staver said, “”The politically motivated complaints filed with the JIC have no basis in the Canons of Judicial Ethics. The Alabama Supreme Court is the only body that has statutory authority to overrule administrative orders of the chief justice. See § 12-5-20, Ala. Code 1975. The complaints filed against the chief justice ask the JIC to usurp the legal authority of the justices of the Alabama Supreme Court to review the administrative orders of the chief justice.”
WND also reported when a second justice on the Alabama Supreme Court began fighting an attack from the SPLC.
Officials with Liberty Counsel have sued on behalf of Justice Tom Parker over the speech restrictions included in the Alabama Canons of Judicial Ethics, as well as a procedure that automatically suspends a judge if there has been an accusation against him.
“These provisions are being used by the Southern Poverty Law Center and its allies on the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission in an attempt to intimidate, silence, and punish Justice Parker for his originalist judicial philosophy and protected speech,” the legal organization explained.
“Justice Parker has a constitutional right to speak out on the case so long as he is not presently presiding over it. We know have seen a disturbing pattern of the JIC doing the bidding of the Southern Poverty Law Center and filing politically motivated charges against Alabama Supreme Court justices in order to remove them from the bench. It is time to put a stop to this free speech violation and the automatic removal provision,” said Liberty Counsel Chief Mathew Staver.
from PropagandaGuard https://propagandaguard.wordpress.com/2016/08/12/splc-chief-richard-cohen-named-in-bar-association-complaint/
from WordPress https://toddmsiebert.wordpress.com/2016/08/11/splc-chief-richard-cohen-named-in-bar-association-complaint/
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