WASHINGTON, DC – In response to today’s House Judiciary Committee hearing targeting the Southern Poverty Law Center, Constitutional Accountability Center (CAC) Vice President Praveen Fernandes issued the following reaction:

Instead of investigating the Department of Justice’s involvement in a $1.8 billion slush fund Trump once proposed for his allies, or the Department’s refusal to release the Office of Legal Counsel’s opinion authorizing the military actions in Iran that have resulted in the deaths of brave American servicemembers and skyrocketing prices for American consumers, or the Department’s ongoing failure to provide the full Epstein file transparency that Congress and the American people have demanded, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan chose to hold a hearing aimed at amplifying falsehoods about the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) at the very moment the storied organization finds itself the subject of a politicized prosecution by the Trump Department of Justice.

This hearing should be understood not only as an attack on SPLC, but also as support for the Trump administration’s campaign to silence voices of dissent against Trump and his policies. For more than half a century, SPLC has monitored and documented violence and hate, playing a key role in a civil rights movement that has made our nation freer, fairer, and stronger. SPLC’s information, which it has shared with local and federal law enforcement under administrations of both political parties, has helped keep all Americans safe. When the work of organizations like SPLC is threatened, we should all be deeply concerned.