Southern Legal Resource Center

Southern Legal Resource Center
Founded1996 (1996)
Founder
  • Carl A. Barrington
  • Kirk David Lyons
  • Larry Norman
  • Lourie A. Salley III
Type
  • Public-interest law firm
  • Civil rights advocacy org
Tax ID no. 56-1924497
FocusSouthern heritage
Location
Region served
United States
ProductLegal representation
Websitewww.slrc-csa.org

The Southern Legal Resource Center, Inc. (SLRC) is a non-profit and public law corporation in South Carolina[1] which offers legal support to defend what they see as First Amendment violations, violation of civil rights, or "discrimination against advocates of southern heritage".

History

In 2004 the SLRC hired advertising executive and Southern activist Roger McCredie as its full-time executive director. Under McCredie the organization doubled the size of its board of directors, increased its advertising program and undertook an ambitious five-year growth and development plan.[2]

SLRC advocacy

The SLRC has supported the rights of students to use and display Confederate symbols. Its most significant victory was Castorina v. Madison County Schools, in which the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in 2001 overturned a federal district court's ruling in favor of a Kentucky school board's ban on student displays of Confederate symbols, and remanded the case for further proceedings.[3]

Criticism

The SLRC has drawn fire from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which has frequently attacked the SLRC by citing Lyons' pre-SLRC defense of some controversial right-wing figures such as Aryan Nations members, White Aryan Resistance founder Tom Metzger[4] and Lyons' 1990 marriage to the sister of jailed Order defendant David Tate. The SPLC also criticized Lyons tie to Deborah Davila's FBI espionage case.[5]

In addition the SPLC has called Southern Legal's fundraising practices "deceitful" citing, for example, "the SLRC Web site detailed two disputes under a headline that read 'Cases Pending,' implying that the SLRC represented the parties involved. In both cases, the plaintiff's families say Lyons actually did very little for them."[6]

"Confederate Southern Americans"

The SLRC called on "Confederate Southern Americans" to identify as a separate race on the 2010 United States census form.[7]

References

  1. ↑ "Business Entity Profile". State of South Carolina. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
  2. ↑ Interview with Roger McCredie November 8, 2009
  3. ↑ Castorina v. Madison County Schools, [1] (6th Cir. 2001).
  4. ↑ "In the Lyons Den: Kirk Lyons, a white supremacist lawyer whose clients have been a 'Who's Who' of the radical right". Southern Poverty Law Center. Summer 2000. "SPLCenter.org: In the Lyons den". Archived from the original on 2007-08-07. Retrieved 2007-08-17.. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  5. ↑ "Spy vs. Spy: Kirk Lyons, linked by the FBI to a bizarre espionage case". Southern Poverty Law Center. Spring 2003. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  6. ↑ "Cashing in on the Confederacy". Southern Poverty Law Center. Spring 2003. "SPLCenter.org: Cashing in on the Confederacy". Archived from the original on 2007-07-14. Retrieved 2007-08-17.. Retrieved 2007-08-17
  7. ↑ "Declare 'Confederate Southern American' on Census forms, group says". Retrieved March 28, 2010.
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