NEW YORK — This week, the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit legal advocacy group, announced that it is being criminally charged by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). In response, Fines and Fees Justice Center’s (FFJC) Co-Executive Directors Joanna Weiss and Priya Sarathy Jones issued the following statement on behalf of FFJC:
“The Southern Poverty Law Center has championed the rights of marginalized communities, supported public safety, and played a vital role in strengthening communities for over 50 years. Their work over the course of American history exemplifies a core principle of our society: civic duty. The DOJ’s unfair and punitive attacks on the organization undermines that core principle.
“At FFJC, we fight every day against government use of the justice system to extract revenue, largely from low income communities and communities of color, rather than enforcing justice. The DOJ indictment of the SPLC dangerously weaponizes our justice system, and puts a troubling target on the backs of every nonprofit, especially those that support and fight for the rights of marginalized communities.
“Nonprofits serve as a vital and necessary counterweight to government activities – regardless of which party is in power. An attack on one nonprofit is an attack on all. We must not stay silent.
“As long-time advocates fighting for public safety and against the weaponization of our judicial systems, we strongly condemn the DOJ’s unjust targeting of the Southern Poverty Law Center, and call on the federal government to stop abusing their powers and truly be a government of the people, by the people, for the people.”