The IRS should probe and consider revoking the tax-exempt status of the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for its hyper-partisan political activity, a complaint filed with the agency on Thursday argues.
“American taxpayers should not be expected to subsidize an organization that engages in daily attacks on Republicans, compares those who hold mainstream conservative beliefs to the KKK, and who consistently labels conservatives as engaging in ‘hate’ without any reference to any other political parties or ideologies,” Center to Advance Security in America (CASA) Director James Fitzpatrick told The Federalist. “We believe the American people are entitled to a full investigation into this urgent matter.”
Addressed to Treasury Secretary and Acting IRS Commissioner Scott Bessent, the legal complaint obtained by The Federalist requests that the federal agency launch an investigation into the SPLC over “several serious concerns about [its] compliance with federal law regarding tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3) including but not limited to it no longer fulfilling a charitable purpose and its partisan political activity.”
As described by the nonprofit watchdog InfluenceWatch, the SPLC is a “controversial left-of-center advocacy group that claims to be a watchdog of extremist groups.” The organization “has been criticized for its financial practices and for characterizing non-violent conventional conservative organizations as equivalent to violent extremists.”
As further noted by Fitzpatrick in CASA’s complaint to the IRS, the SPLC “liken[s] normal, mainstream, conservative beliefs, to that of the KKK” and labels “political candidates and government officials, only Republicans, on their hate lists or hate watch articles.” The leftist group notably characterized Turning Point USA — the organization founded by the recently assassinated Charlie Kirk — as a “hard right” group that embraces “white nationalist” conspiracies.
In a May 2025 article, author Rachael Fugardi claimed that “Turning Point USA’s primary strategy is sowing and exploiting fear that white Christian supremacy is under attack by nefarious actors, including immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community and civil rights activists.” She further contended that TPUSA is seeking to “sow fear and division to enforce social hierarchies rooted in supremacism,” which she said “is emblematic of the hard right’s broader political project to destroy our foundational democratic principles and institutions.”
“The article,” Fitzpatrick noted in CASA’s complaint, “is filled with cherry picked and out of context comments made by Kirk and draws untrue and unverified conclusions.” The goal of the article is to “make the reader hate Kirk and his work,” he added.
“This is the SPLC’s modus operandi. SPLC’s entire website is filled with inflammatory language,” the complaint reads. “On at least one occasion, their content may have even led to political violence. In 2012, Floyd Lee Corkins II opened fire at the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the conservative Christian think tank Family Research Council. Prosecutors stated they found on Corkins’ computer and that he had identified his targets using SPLC’s website. This isn’t to say that SPLC’s speech causes political violence. But it does serve to exemplify how it creates an environment of hate that does not serve the public interest.”
The FBI recently terminated “all ties” with the SPLC over its role as a “a partisan smear machine,” Director Kash Patel announced last week.
Fitzpatrick went on to note that the SPLC’s status as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt “charitable” organization allows it to “raise money or financing while avoiding state and federal income taxes, unemployment taxes, and in some cases property or other state taxes.” This also means that donors’ financial contributions to the group can be tax deductible.
In concluding its complaint, CASA argues that the bevy of SPLC’s documented “partisan political activit[ies]” “are grounds for immediate revocation of charitable status.” “This step,” the group argues, “would not shut SPLC’s doors” but result in the SPLC “no longer receiv[ing] the tax benefits extended to non-political organizations that further the public interest listed within Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.”
“Based on the above allegations and the evidence provided in support; we believe that the American people are entitled to a full investigation into this urgent matter,” the complaint reads.
CASA’s IRS filing comes a day after the good government group submitted a complaint to the Virginia State Bar asking that it revoke the law license of Democrat Attorney General candidate Jay Jones. The move came in response to 2022 text messages and phone call conversations in which Jones reportedly fantasized about assassinating Virginia’s then-GOP House speaker and wished death on his children.
CASA IRS Complaint_Review of SPLC Tax Exempt Status_final_10.06.25 by The Federalist