Having succeeded Pam Bondi, the recently deposed attorney general, Blanche is now doing the job on an “acting basis.” And he is using his tenure to campaign for the full position by attempting to show he can out-Bondi his predecessor. As CNN reported, on April 20 Blanche traveled to Florida to meet with Joseph diGenova, the Trump loyalist and newly-named counselor to the attorney general who will lead investigations into the president’s perceived foes, starting with former CIA Director John Brennan. Blanche is, CNN added, “fight[ing] to prove he’s the man to deliver on Trump’s biggest priority: prosecuting the president’s political adversaries.

The day after his trip to Florida, news broke that the Justice Department had secured an indictment against the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization established in 1971 to build on the successes of the Civil Rights Movement and confront resistance to civil rights legislation and initiatives. The department’s action is yet another move meant to spotlight Blanche’s no holds barred campaign against individuals and groups perceived as enemies of the president and his MAGA movement — and to bolster his bid to be nominated by Trump as attorney general. Related The next attorney general could be an anti-civil rights warrior Over its 55-year history, SPLC attorneys have won multimillion dollar judgments against white supremacist groups, helping to dismantle the vestiges of Jim Crow; advocated for women, the LGBTQ community and people with disabilities; and instituted a Teaching Tolerance curriculum that was adopted by schools across the country. (The organization also went through a troubled patch when its founder, civil rights activist and attorney Morris Dees, was ousted in 2019 after two dozen employees reported “mistreatment, sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and racism” which threatened SPLC’s moral authority and integrity.”) Even the conservative Heritage Foundation credits the SPLC with numerous important victories for justice.

Recently, though, conservatives have charged the organization with abandoning its mission. In their view, the SPLC crossed a red line when it labeled some right-wing organizations, including the Family Research Council, Center for Immigration Studies and Alliance Defending Freedom, as hate or anti-government extremist groups. Critics are particularly agitated by the SPLC’s “hate map,” which the organization has described as an “annual census of hate groups” meant to serve as “a barometer…of the level of hate activity in the country,” and which has been published yearly since 1990.

Based on research and monitoring by SPLC analysts, the chart purports to show “approximate locations” of the groups by tracking their annual activities. The ideologies being monitored — which include, according to Axios, views that are “anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ, sexist, racist or bigoted against religions” — make up an important part of Donald Trump’s political base. The ideologies being monitored — which include, according to Axios, views that are “anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ, sexist, racist or bigoted against religions” — make up an important part of Donald Trump’s political base.

Conservative critics accuse the SPLC of becoming “an organ of defamation,” and they have held the organization partially responsible for the September 2025 assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Turning Point USA, the group he founded, was included in a retrospective report on 2024 as “A Case Study of the Hard Right.” For the MAGA faithful, the SPLC is a stand-in for a range of activist groups that Trump and his supporters say “encompass a range of ideological motivations, including anarchist, Marxist-Leninist, autonomous Marxist, Maoist, communist, extreme socialist, eco-extremist, anticapitalist and other self-identified antifascist ideologies.” In the wake of conservative criticism, FBI Director Kash Patel took the first shot against the SPLC in October.

For years, the organization had provided information to the bureau in an effort to help law enforcement identify hate groups. No more, Patel wrote in an X post: “The Southern Poverty Law Center long ago abandoned civil rights work and turned into a partisan smear machine. Their so-called ‘hate map’ has been used to defame mainstream Americans and even inspired violence.

That disgraceful record makes them unfit for any FBI partnership…. Under this FBI, all ties with the SPLC have officially been terminated.” Want more sharp takes on politics? Sign up for our free newsletter, Standing Room Only, written by Amanda Marcotte, now also a weekly