Alabama attorney general announces civil probe of Southern Poverty Law Center

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: AP

Updated 6:33 PM EDT, May 11, 2026


MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — 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. Alabama Attorney 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.

“We look forward to learning more about the inner workings of an organization that we have long believed was rotten, but until recently, has been impervious,” Marshall said in a news release. The SPLC gave a brief response Monday. “We have received notice of a subpoena and are currently reviewing,” a spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement.

The state investigation comes after the U.S. Department of Justice announced a criminal indictment against the organization, accusing it of fraud by using funds to pay informants inside extremist groups. Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, accused the group of “manufacturing racism to justify its existence.”

The SPLC has called the accusation “provably wrong” and said the informant program gathered intelligence to help stop attacks and dismantle the efforts of hate groups. The organization said federal officials have long known about the program and that information has been shared with law enforcement.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/southern-poverty-law-center-39687360a6e5e65ac1123e974853dc9d

[no_hypocrisy]

1. FFS, who's next? The NAACP?

[Botany]

2. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, "the inner workings of an organization ... we believe is rotten"

What the Alabama A.G. is really saying is the S.P.L.C. is rotten because it helps A.A. and that Jim Crow
is still alive. Can’t let them coloreds vote and have their votes counted and the SCOTUS has his back
too.

[underpants]

3. Fun Fact: Al Abama banned yoga in public schools for 30 years

Alabama Will Now Allow Yoga In Its Public Schools (But Students Can't Say 'Namaste')

MAY 21, 2021


Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has signed a bill to allow public schools to offer yoga, ending a ban that stood for nearly 30 years. Christian conservatives who back the ban said yoga would open the door for people to be converted to Hinduism.

The new law allows yoga to be offered as an elective for grades K-12. While it erases a ban that, over the years, some schools had not realized existed, it also imposes restrictions on how yoga should be taught. Students won't be allowed to say, "Namaste," for instance. Meditation is not allowed.

"Chanting, mantras, mudras, use of mandalas, induction of hypnotic states, guided imagery, and namaste greetings shall be expressly prohibited," the bill states. It also requires English names be used for all poses and exercises. And before any students try a tree pose, they'll need a parent's permission slip.

https://www.npr.org/2021/05/21/999020140/its-now-legal-to-practice-yoga-in-alabamas-public-schools

[OldBaldy1701E]

6. "Christian conservatives who back the ban said yoga would open the door for people to be converted to Hinduism."

And that, ladies, gentlemen, and everything in between, is what we are up against.

"Chanting, mantras, mudras, use of mandalas, induction of hypnotic states, guided imagery, and namaste greetings shall be expressly prohibited," the bill states. It also requires English names be used for all poses and exercises. And before any students try a tree pose, they'll need a parent's permission slip.

(And yet, we still don't seem to get it.)

[underpants]

11. Indeed.

See post 10. Neighboring Mississippi banned Sesame Street.

[dem4decades]

4. Alabama and Mississippi the last two states I'd ever visit, never mind live there.

[underpants]

10. Fun Fact: Mississippi banned "Sesame Street" due to its multiracial cast

See my post above about Al Abama banning yoga for 30 years.


Mississippi officials refused to air 'Sesame Street' in 1970 because of multiracial cast
"Sesame Street," which premiered in November 1969, faced a rough road to air in the state of Mississippi. This is that story.

On April 30, 1970, members of the Mississippi Authority for Educational Television commission voted 3-2 in favor of rejecting or "banning" the children's educational TV show "Sesame Street" from airing in the state, with some unidentified commission members citing the multiracial cast as the reason for the decision.

Either way, the reality remained that, at that time, the state's only educational television (ETV) station — WMAA-TV on channel 29, broadcasting over a 65-mile range from the capital city of Jackson — was the only one out of 190 stations nationwide that did not air the show. The state's legislature established its educational TV commission earlier in 1970 and had appropriated $5.3 million toward working to expand the effort statewide.


Some sources mentioned "financial difficulties" for the delay in airing "Sesame Street" in Mississippi, with one article's author quoting William R. Smith Jr., executive director of the Jackson station. While "Sesame Street" producers Children's Television Workshop offered the program to ETV stations free of charge, the mention of "financial difficulties" reflected concerns among commission members and lawmakers who allegedly supported the show but feared that carrying the program with its multiracial cast could jeopardize the state's ETV project in the state's legislature — one that had only very recently embraced the ETV effort — before it completely launched statewide.

https://www.snopes.com/articles/469729/mississippi-sesame-street-multiracial-cast/

[Vinca]

5. Well, it's Alabama. The SPLC is getting in the way of the Klan rallies.

[orangecrush]

7. This guy

Mississippi Burniing

?si=1KRz917MDNRHrVMP

[BumRushDaShow]

8. Good movie.

[KS Toronado]

9. I've got the DVD of Mississippi Burning

Time to watch it again.

[orangecrush]

12. Sure enough