U.S. Department of Justice

A Justice Department indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center is part of a “top-down” campaign of retribution against President Donald Trump's perceived political enemies and constitutes a vindictive prosecution that must be dismissed, lawyers for the nonprofit argued in urging a judge to toss the case out.

Alabama’s attorney general announced a civil investigation Monday into the Southern Poverty Law Center's fundraising practices in the wake of a federal indictment against the organization. AG General Steve Marshall said he has sent a subpoena to the center seeking information about its donations and payments to informants. He said he is seeking to determine if the organization violated state laws related to charitable organizations or deceptive trade practices.

Lawyers for the Southern Poverty Law Center will appear in court Thursday for the first time since the civil rights group was charged with defrauding donors by failing to disclose that money would be paid to informants inside extremist groups. The SPLC denies wrongdoing, and no individual is charged.

The Southern Poverty Law Center told a federal court that law enforcement agencies have long known that the nonprofit paid informants to report on the movements of hate groups, rejecting assertions by the Trump administration that the nonprofit steered money to the Ku Klux Klan and other extremist groups without the knowledge of authorities.

The Southern Poverty Law Center was indicted Tuesday on federal fraud charges alleging it improperly raised millions of dollars to secretly pay leaders of the Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups for inside information.

The Southern Poverty Law Center says it's the subject of a criminal investigation by the Justice Department and faces possible charges over its past use of paid informants to infiltrate extremist groups.

A group of students and professors at public universities across Alabama are asking an appeals court to halt a state law that bans diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in public schools and prohibits the endorsement of what Republican lawmakers dubbed “divisive concepts” related to race and gender.

The U.S. Justice Department has withdrawn from an agreement with the city of Houston to curb illegal dumping in Black and Latino neighborhoods, part of the Trump administration’s broad dismantling of environmental justice initiatives. This follows a similar move in Alabama.

A federal grand jury indicted a former jail administrator for allegedly beating a handcuffed incarcerated person in an Alabama jail and then lying about it to law enforcement, the Justice Department said. Christian Alexander Porter, 33, is accused of punching an unnamed handcuffed man who was incarcerated at the Crenshaw County Jail in October 2021.

The U.S. Justice Department says Alabama is unnecessarily institutionalizing children with physical disabilities in nursing homes and hospitals. A Justice Department investigation found Alabama is violating the requirement of the Americans with Disabilities Act to administer services to individuals with disabilities in the setting most appropriate to the person’s needs.