Anyone recall the Tom Metzger case?

[MindPilot]

IIRC There was a lawyer from the southern poverty law center who successfully sued white supremacist Tom Metzger for inciting a murder in again, IIRC, Oregon.

Perhaps some of you who are good at research (and have the time) can find out who that lawyer was and we can all write and see if he will look at this TN shooting case and how RW hate radio may be held liable.

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. Morris Dees

Southern Poverty Law Center

[gratuitous]

2. Yep; he didn't show up to defend himself

In 1988, Ethiopian immigrant Mulugeta Seraw was beaten to death by a group of racist skinheads about 20 blocks from where I then lived in Portland. After the perpetrators were convicted, Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center brought a civil rights action against Tom Metzger, a small-time skinhead organizer who had influenced the rise of skinheads in Oregon. Metzger didn't deign to offer a defense, and Dees won a substantial judgment against Metzger based on Metzger's writings and recordings. Even though Metzger tried to dodge the judgment, the resultant publicity ruined his operation.

[norepubsin08]

3. Morris Dees

He also took on abunch of racists in Portland who killed an Ethiopian immigrant and also bankrupted the Aryian Nations in Northern Idaho so they had to give up their compound.

[onenote]

4. yep. and it provides no basis for suing RW radio

Metzger was sued in a civil case arising out the murder of an Ethopian graduate student by a group of Portand OR skinheads. Metzger's relationship to the crime arose out of the fact that one of the skinheads involved in the crime had been a member of Metzger's group, White Aryan Resistance, in California, had been directly trained by Metzger, and Metzger had arranged for this guy to move to OR to organize and recruit skinheads to engage in violent activities. That direct, pre-existing relationship with the perpetrator of the crime presents a much different situation than the abstract (albeit hateful) advocacy heard on RW radio. I can assure you that the Southern Poverty Law Center, which assisted in the lawsuit against Metzger, and which I have been supporting for more than two decades, would agree that the constitution protects RW radio.

[slackmaster]

5. Yes, very well - As I recall, Metzger specifically taught his young thugs how to murder someone

And then try to pass it off as "just a fight". Dees was able to get several of the boys to testify against Metzger.

The result was a multi-million dollar settlement against Metzger, effectively putting the White Aryan Resistance out of business.