Judicial Commission Tosses Out ‘Politically Motivated’ SPLC Complaint Against Alabama Justice Tom Parker

Mat Staver: “Shame on the SPLC”…

The following is excerpted from an article in WND.com published today:

Politically-Motivated Claims Against Alabama Justice Tossed

By Bob Unruh, WND.com, 10-22-16

A complaint that had been filed against Alabama Supreme Court Justice Tom Parker by the domestic terror-linked Southern Poverty Law Center has been dismissed by the state’s Judicial Inquiry Commission.

“Shame on the SPLC for filing this politically motivated complaint against Justice Parker,” said Mat Staver, chairman of Liberty Counsel, which represents Parker.

Parker was accused, after he was interviewed on American Family Radio about the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion on marriage, of violating the Canon 3(A)(6) of the state canons of judicial ethics.

The problem, Staver explained, is that the rule purports to prevent any judge in the state from making “any public comment about a pending or impending proceeding in any court” – even if the judge is not involved in the case and if the judge’s comments “do not have a reasonable likelihood of affecting the outcome or impairing the fairness of that proceeding.”

Liberty Counsel noted such a rule has been described by the American Bar Association as violating the First Amendment.

In fact, a lawsuit has been filed in federal court challenging the constitutionality of the rule. U.S. District Judge Keith Watkins, in the case, acknowledged the First Amendment issues that arise when SPLC, in a political season, attempts to use an agency of state government to suppress speech with which the SPLC disagrees. But the judge did not rule immediately.

“We are pleased that the complaint against Justice Tom Parker has been dismissed,” said Staver. “The speech restrictive Judicial Canon clearly violates the First Amendment. The Canon is so broad that it prevents judges from commenting on any case pending anywhere in the county, even if they are teaching students in law school.

“I call upon the Alabama Supreme Court and the legislature to change this unconstitutional speech restriction and the automatic removal provision,” said Staver.

WND reported when the complaint was filed that if the JIC had filed a charge, Parker would have been suspended from office based only on the accusation.

That state practice also is under legal challenge.

The case developed as part of SPLC’s war on traditional-marriage advocates in the state.

SPLC even briefly put Dr. Ben Carson, former GOP candidate for president and one of the most admired men in America, on its list of “haters” because of his views on marriage.

The group was linked to a domestic terror case in Washington, D.C., when a gunman, Floyd Corkins, relied on SPLC’s “hate” list to attempt mass murder at the Family Research Council’s office.

“On August 15, 2012, Floyd Corkins went to the Family Research Council with a gun and a bag filled with ammunition and Chick-fil-A sandwiches. His stated purpose was to kill as many employees of the Family Research Council as possible and then to smear Chick-fil-A sandwiches in their faces (because the founder of the food chain said he believed in marriage as a man and a woman). Fortunately, Mr. Corkins was stopped by the security guard, who was shot in the process. Corkins is now serving time in prison. Mr. Corkins admitted to the court that he learned of the Family Research Council by reading the SPLC’s hate map,” FRC documented.

Corkins was sentenced to prison for domestic terrorism after admitting on video he accessed SPLC’s recommendations to pick a target for his attack. SPLC identified FRC as a hate group because it holds to a biblical definition of homosexuality.

Read more at http://mobile.wnd.com/2016/10/politically-motivated-claims-against-alabama-judge-tossed/#RTkZC5slPV1A52zu.99

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Get the Whistleblower Magazine’s revelations about the SPLC, in its March 2015 edition of “The Hate Racket,” the complete story of how one group fools government into equating Christians and conservatives with Klansmen and Nazis – and rakes in millions doing it.