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The Southern Poverty Law Center, which pressures financial institutions to blacklist the mainstream conservative and Christian organizations it places on a “hate map” with chapters of the Ku Klux Klan, published an article purportedly “debunking ADF’s ‘debanking’ conspiracy theory.”
Alliance Defending Freedom, the organization SPLC attacked, has raised the alarm about financial institutions denying banking services to customers based on their religious or political affiliations. ADF has pointed to numerous instances of what it describes as debanking, though the banks in question claim the denials of service were not religiously or politically motivated.
SPLC not only took the banks’ word for it, but acted as though its own calls for financial institutions to stop “funding hate” did not amount to a debanking pressure campaign.
“By conflating the market consequences for supporting hate and extremism—such as customers choosing not to patronize and shareholders not investing in corporations that do business with extremist groups—ADF has perpetuated a false conspiracy theory that claims big government and big corporations are victimizing conservative Christians,” the SPLC’s R.G. Cravens wrote.
Cravens faulted ADF for supporting the Fair Access to Banking Act, which Cravens said would “coerce banks and financial institutions to violate their corporate DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion] values, forcing them to do business with hate and extremist groups.”
Debanking ‘Hate’
Nowhere did Cravens note or acknowledge that the SPLC’s “hate” and “extremist” accusations are highly contested. As my book, “Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center,” explains, critics on both the Right and the Left have vehemently disagreed with the SPLC’s decision to put ADF on the “hate map” with chapters of the Klan.
This “hate map” suggests that groups like ADF—a leading conservative Christian law firm that has won multiple Supreme Court cases—are motivated by the same kind of hate that drove horrific racist lynchings in the early 1900s. The SPLC’s latest update of the “hate map” describes every organization on the map as part of the “organizational infrastructure … upholding white supremacy.”
Cravens went on to claim that the media appearances of Jeremy Tedesco, senior vice president of corporate engagement at ADF, “suggest ADF is drawing on both Christian right and white nationalist themes to build its case for government regulation to stop what it characterizes as an anti-white and anti-Christian conspiracy.”
The SPLC did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for proof that ADF had ever characterized debanking as “an anti-white and anti-Christian conspiracy.”
‘Anti-White’?
Tedesco vehemently denied the claim.
“Both claims are outright and disgusting lies,” the ADF senior vice president told The Daily Signal in written comments Monday. “But we should not be surprised. One way the SPLC makes money is by lying to its donors. Indeed, a former SPLC employee wrote that he and his colleagues felt like ‘pawns in what was, in many respects, a highly profitable scam.’”
When specifically asked if ADF ever characterized debanking as “anti-white,” Tedesco replied, “Never.”
“We view the rise in politically motivated debanking as a risk to all Americans, regardless of their political or religious views,” he explained. “As we’ve written elsewhere, Senators [Elizabeth] Warren and Bernie Sanders have similarly warned of the rise in politicized de-banking. Is the SPLC prepared to slander them as bigots for flagging this real concern?”
Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Sanders, a Vermont independent, joined with Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.; and Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., in sending letters to JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citibank requesting information on how the banks might be engaging in viewpoint discrimination against Muslim Americans.
Kristen Waggoner, CEO, president, and general counsel at ADF, wrote an op-ed praising these lawmakers, saying they “were right to sound the alarm.”
“No American should have to worry that their bank account will be canceled or in any way penalized because of their religious or political views,” Waggoner wrote.
Forced to Violate Values
Cravens’ charge that ADF would “coerce” banks into violating “their corporate DEI values” echoes ADF’s own arguments defending Christian graphic designers like 303 Creative owner Lori Smith. Last year, the Supreme Court agreed with ADF graphic designers like Smith have an artistic expression free speech right to decline to celebrate events with which they disagree, in Smith’s case a same-sex wedding.
Critics like the SPLC have branded this a “license to discriminate,” and Cravens appears to have tried to flip the script on ADF by arguing that financial companies’ diversity, equity, and inclusion values should enable them to deny services to “hate groups.”
Tedesco drew a clear distinction between the two cases.
“It’s simple. A bank is not speaking when it opens or closes a customer’s bank account,” he told The Daily Signal. “On the other hand, people who speak for a living—photographers, videographers, web designers, graphic artists, etc.—are protected by the First Amendment and cannot be forced to express ideas they disagree with.”
“For example, a Democrat publicist could decline to pen Republican talking points and an atheist graphic artist could decline to design bulletin boards promoting the existence of God,” Tedesco added. “The First Amendment permits these decisions when the individual objects to the message they are being asked to promote. But banks do not speak when they provide generic, nonexpressive commercial services like a bank account or payment processing.”
Evidence of Debanking
Ultimately, Tedesco claimed, the SPLC’s attack falls apart because debanking is a real concern. He cited a recent court filing from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau noting that “a discriminatory act—such as debanking a Christian based on their religion” is a legitimate concern.
“SPLC has also advocated for debanking of its perceived political opponents for years,” Tedesco added. “For example, it partnered with [the Council on American-Islamic Relations] to push donor-advised funds to debank mainstream conservative and Christian nonprofits in a report titled Hate-Free Philanthropy.”
Last year, the SPLC released a report on “extremist finance” that pressured donor-advised funds operated by major banks to blacklist “hate groups” like ADF, “extremist” groups like the parental rights nonprofit Moms for Liberty, and even “hard right” groups like Turning Point USA. In 2019, the Amalgamated Foundation, a project of the SEIU-owned Amalgamated Bank, launched the “Hate Is Not Charitable” campaign, urging donor-advised funds to blacklist groups the SPLC brands “hate groups.”
“Debanking is clearly on the rise,” Tedesco told The Daily Signal. He pointed to a resource page titled “Instances of Viewpoint-Based De-Banking.” The page notes that financial services companies revoked services from organizations that the SPLC attacked on its “hate map.”
In 2017, Vanco Payments abruptly ceased providing payment processing services to the Ruth Institute. Vanco Payments noted that the Ruth Institute “has been flagged by Card Brands as being affiliated with a product/service that promotes hate, violence, harassment and/or abuse.” It did not specifically cite the SPLC, but the “hate” accusation likely traces back to the SPLC’s branding the institute an “anti-LGBTQ hate group.”
In 2022, PayPal froze the Moms for Liberty account, providing no explanation. Only after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, pressured the company did it restore the account and allow Moms for Liberty to access the $4,500 in that account.
Some companies, such as Eventbrite, make no secret of the fact that they use the SPLC “hate map” to blacklist organizations, refusing to do business with them.
In the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network sent an email to leadership at major banks, urging them to stop “bankrolling bigotry,” specifically citing the SPLC on “hate groups.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center did not respond to a request for comment about its own track record encouraging debanking and other attempts to ostracize conservatives.