WASHINGTON — On April 21, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice announced an indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an organization that has spent decades documenting hate groups, defending vulnerable communities, and holding extremist organizations accountable in court. The indictment is the latest escalation in a coordinated pattern we have watched unfold for well over a year: law firms targeted by executive order, judges threatened for lawful rulings, civil rights protections unlawfully rescinded, and now civil rights organizations themselves pulled into the crosshairs.
Traci Feit Love, Founder and Executive Director of Lawyers for Good Government, released the following statement in response:
“This administration is using the Department of Justice to punish organizations that protect Americans from hate and discrimination, and to send a message to every nonprofit, law firm, and advocate in this country: fall in line, or you are next. We refuse that choice. As lawyers, we swore an oath to support the Constitution, and we will act in accordance with that oath. Lawyers for Good Government stands with SPLC, with The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and with every civil rights organization under attack. An attack on one is an attack on all. We will not be intimidated, and we will not stay silent.”
Lawyers for Good Government is part of the broad coalition of civil rights organizations that signed the Unity Pact committing to stand together when any one of us comes under attack. We call on Congress, the legal profession, and every person who believes dissent is not a crime to say so publicly, and to say so now.