CENTER FOR IMMIGRATION STUDIES v. COHEN et al
Filing
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COMPLAINT against All Defendants with Jury Demand ( Filing fee $ 400 receipt number 0090-5888934) filed by CENTER FOR IMMIGRATION STUDIES. (Attachments: #1 Civil Cover Sheet, #2 Summons Richard Cohen, #3 Summons Heidi Beirich)(Axelrod, Julie)
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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
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CENTER FOR IMMIGRATION STUDIES
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Plaintiff
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Civil Action No. _____________
v.
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RICHARD COHEN and HEIDI BEIRICH
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Defendants
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__________________________________________)
COMPLAINT
Plaintiff Center for Immigration Studies, by undersigned counsel, hereby asserts its
Complaint against Defendants Richard Cohen and Heidi Beirich as follows:
INTRODUCTION
1. This is a civil RICO lawsuit by Center for Immigration Studies (“Plaintiff” or “CIS”) against
two individuals who operate the Southern Poverty Law Center (“SPLC”) and have used it
to harm CIS by falsely designating it as a “hate group.”
2. CIS seeks money damages and an injunction to bar the defendants from further
racketeering activity.
PARTIES, JURISDICTION, AND VENUE
3. CIS is a nonprofit corporation incorporated in the District of Columbia. CIS has been
recognized as a tax-exempt educational organization under §501(c)(3) of the Internal
Revenue Code.
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4. The defendants are individuals and citizens of Alabama and Georgia respectively.
5. The Court has jurisdiction of the case as a federal question pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §1332
as it arises from RICO’s civil damages provision, 18 U.S.C. §1964(c).1
6. Venue is proper here as the RICO violations were intended to cause damage to CIS in
this district and did so.
FACTS
The Defendants Have Been Engaged In An Ongoing Conspiracy To Harm CIS By Falsely
Designating It A Hate Group
7. SPLC is a law firm and advocacy organization with its headquarters in Montgomery,
Alabama.
8. At all relevant times, Defendant Beirich has led SPLC’s Intelligence Project, which
published the “Hatewatch” blog discussed below.
9. At all relevant times, Defendant Cohen collaborates with Beirich in designating hate
groups and in all of the offensive statements against CIS.
10. At all relevant times, Defendant Cohen has served as the President of SPLC. He oversees
Defendant Beirich’s activities and approved of the designation of CIS as a hate group
and the offensive statements made about it.
11. According to its website, SPLC is engaged in “monitoring the activities of domestic hate
groups and other extremists,” as well as publishing “investigative reports” and offering
“expert analysis” on these groups.
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The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), 18 U.S.C. §§1961-1968. Citations to
the statute will omit reference to Title 18 of the U.S. Code.
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12. According to the former Editor in Chief of the SPLC’s Intelligence Report SPLC is “not
trying to change anybody’s mind” about the organizations it designates as hate groups
but is instead “trying to wreck the groups… and destroy them.”
13. SPLC designated CIS as a “hate group” in 2016. The decision to designate CIS as a hate
group was made by Defendant Beirich, who oversees SPLC’s Hatewatch Blog, in
collaboration with Defendant Cohen, President of SPLC, who is involved in the hate
group designations.
14. SPLC defines a “hate group” as “an organization that – based on its official statements or
principles, the statements of its leaders, or its activities – has beliefs or practices that
attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics.”
https://www.splcenter.org/20171004/frequently-asked-questions-about-hategroups#hate%20group (accessed January 15, 2019).
15. As the Supreme Court has recognized, being an illegal, unauthorized, or undocumented
immigrant is not an “immutable characteristic” since “it is the product of a conscious,
indeed unlawful, action.”2 And being a legal immigrant is similarly the result of a
personal choice. Thus, SPLC has not even articulated a basis for designating CIS or any
organization a hate group based upon its views on immigration policy.
16. Even if being an immigrant were an “immutable characteristic” the “official statement
or principles” of CIS do not indicate “beliefs or practices” that “attack or malign”
immigrants as a “class.” As posted on the CIS website, the mission of CIS is “providing
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Plyler v. Doe, 487 U.S. 202, 220 (1982).
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immigration policy makers, the academic community, news media, and concerned
citizens with reliable information about the social, economic, environmental, security
and fiscal consequences of legal and illegal immigration into the United States.”
https://www.cis.org/About-Center-Immigration-Studies. Moreover, CIS’s motto, as
stated on the homepage of its website, is “Pro immigrant, low immigration,” reflecting
its belief that the level of immigration should be lower—but not zero, i.e., some level of
immigration is in the national interest.
17. The SPLC has produced no evidence that the “statements” of CIS “leaders” or
“activities” of CIS reveal “beliefs or practices” that “malign or attack” immigrants as a
class. The information that is provided by CIS on the consequences of immigration is
ordinarily based on official federal government statistics. To the extent information
provided by CIS supports reductions in legal or illegal immigration, such reductions are
consistent with the recommendations of the bipartisan Commission on Immigration
Reform appointed by President Bill Clinton and headed by civil rights leader and former
Congresswoman Barbara Jordan. Nobody has accused the Commission of being a hate
group.
18. Accordingly, Beirich and Cohen decided to designate CIS as a hate group knowing CIS did
not meet SPLC’s aforementioned definition of a hate group. They knew or should have
known that being an immigrant is not an “immutable characteristic” and that even if it
were, the “official statements” and “principals” of CIS, the “statements of its leaders,”
and its “activities” reveal no “beliefs or practices” that “attack or malign” immigrants as
a class.
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The Ongoing Conspiracy Among Cohen and Beirich To Falsely Designate CIS A Hate Group Is
Wire Fraud And Violates RICO
19. To carry out this conspiracy, Cohen agreed that Beirich would create a designated
category for CIS on its Hatewatch website pages and oversee an ongoing stream of
obloquy reiterating that CIS was a hate group. These blog posts followed:
a. October 2, 2017: “Center for Immigration Studies hypes chain migration to fit
narrative”;
b. November 3, 2017: “Flyers targeting undocumented immigrants came from org
with ties to racist architect of anti-immigrant movement”;
c. January 31, 2018: “Anti-immigrant groups decry Trump’s ‘amnesty’ plan, but
have pushed for many of its tenants for decades”;
d. February 9, 2018: “The anti-immigrant movement’s dishonest portrayal of
Barbara Jordan”;
e. February 14, 2018: “Jessica Vaughn, staffer with anti-immigrant hate group
Center for Immigrant Studies (CIS), to testify in the House tomorrow”;
f. June 4, 2018: “US Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting director to
speak at hate group even tomorrow”;
g. June 13, 2018: “Anti-immigrant roundup: 6/13/18”;
h. June 21, 2018: Stephen Miller: a driving force behind the Muslim ban and family
separation policy”;
i.
July 6, 2018: “Anti-immigrant roundup: 7/6/18”;
j.
August 15, 2018: “Francis Cissna, head of USCIS, to address anti-immigrant hate
group Center for Immigration Studies today”;
k. August 31, 2018: “ACT for America to again descend on nation’s capital for
annual anti-Muslim conference”;
l.
October 1, 2018: “The Trump administration’s ‘public charge’ policy is the latest
of many that reflect the playbook of anti-immigrant hate groups”; and
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m. October 9, 2018: “ACT for America sets its sights on college campuses with
upcoming speaking tour.”
20. Each of these posts violated the wire fraud statute, 18 U.S.C. §1343, which states, in
pertinent part:
Whoever, having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to
defraud… by means of false or fraudulent pretenses,
representations…transmits or causes to be transmitted by means of wire,
radio, or television communication in interstate or foreign commerce,
any writings… for the purpose of executing such scheme or artifice, shall
be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both….
21. In each instance CIS was identified as a hate group despite the Defendants’ knowledge
that CIS did not fit SPLC’s “hategroup definition.” The website was made accessible to
readers in every state through the use of the interstate wires.
22. The Defendants’ goal was to “wreck” and “destroy” CIS by ruining it financially.
CIS Has Been Damaged By The Conspiracy To Falsely Call It A Hate Group
23. In 2018, the AmazonSmile Program, a method for Amazon customers to donate money
to any non-profit organization a customer wishes to support, terminated CIS’s account
because of SPLC’s hate group designation, which it learned of from the SPLC website.
24. This has cost CIS at least $10,000 in donations to date and damages are ongoing. They
will not be stopped without an injunction against the Defendants.
25. In 2018 GuideStar USA Inc. an information service specializing in reporting on nonprofit
companies, listed on their CIS webpage that CIS had been designated by the SPLC as a
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“hate group.” After hearing from CIS and meeting with its representatives, GuideStar
ultimately removed the SPLC designation from their CIS webpage. This effort involved a
considerable diversion of resources from CIS’ mission and likely deterred contributions.
COUNT I: PLAINTIFF’S §1962(d) RICO CONSPIRACY CLAIM
AGAINST THE DEFENDANTS
26. The preceding paragraphs are incorporated as though set forth below.
27. SPLC is a nonprofit corporation. It operates throughout the U.S. and has offices in
Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi. It is therefore a RICO enterprise pursuant to
18 U.S.C. §1961(4).
28. The Defendants’ scheme to falsely designate CIS a hate group and destroy it involves
racketeering acts, violations of the federal wire fraud statute, 18 U.S.C. §1343, since
October 2017. These attacks are ongoing and will continue. Thus, they constitute an
open-ended pattern of racketeering required by 18 U.S.C. §1961(5). (Violations of §1343
are made acts of racketeering by 18 U.S.C. §1961(1)(B).)
29. The Defendants are each RICO persons pursuant to §1961(3). They agreed to commit and
committed the pattern of racketeering through SPLC enterprise.
30. As detailed herein, all the RICO violations were committed by the Defendants in their
leadership roles in SPLC.
31. Therefore, the Defendants conspired to violate 18 U.S.C. §1962(c)3 by agreeing to the
commission of a pattern of racketeering activity through the enterprise described above,
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Section 1962(c) states, in pertinent part:
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in violation of 18 U.S.C. §1962(d). Section 1962(d) states, in pertinent part: “It shall be
unlawful for any person to conspire to violate any of the provisions of subsection…(c) of
this section.”
32. Accordingly, CIS demands judgment be entered against the Defendants pursuant to 18
U.S.C. §1964(c), for three times its damages, plus attorney’s fees, costs and pre-judgment
interest.
33. CIS also asks for an injunction prohibiting Defendants from again calling CIS a hate group
and requiring Defendants to state on the SPLC website that CIS is not a hate group,
pursuant to 18 U.S. C. §1964(a).
34. CIS demands a jury trial.
Dated: January 16, 2019
/S/ Julie B. Axelrod
Julie B. Axelrod
D.C. Bar No. 1001557
Center for Immigration Studies
1629 K Street, NW, Suite 600
Washington DC, 20006
(703) 888-2442
Fax: (202) 466-8076
jba@cis.org
Howard Foster, pro hac vice application
forthcoming
Matthew Galin, pro hac vice application
forthcoming
It shall be unlawful for any person employed by or associated with any enterprise engaged in, or
the activities of which affect, interstate or foreign commerce, to conduct or participate, directly or
indirectly, in the conduct of such enterprise's affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity…
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Foster PC
150 N. Wacker Dr.
Suite 2150
Chicago, IL 60606
(312)726-1600
hfoster@fosterpc.com
Attorneys for Plaintiff CIS
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