Washington State's Domestic Extremism Task Force Puts Christians In Crosshairs

Washington state has launched a domestic extremism task force, and conservatives are sounding the alarm about task force members' ties to an organization notorious for branding mainstream conservative and Christian organizations as "hate groups."

State Senate Bill 5950, signed by then-Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, on April 1, 2024, established a "Domestic Extremism and Mass Violence Task Force," which will recommend changes to state law.

The task force includes many left-wing groups with ties to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit law firm that sued KKK chapters into bankruptcy and now publishes a "hate map" that includes parental rights groups such as Moms for Liberty, law firms such as Alliance Defending Freedom, and Christian groups such as the Family Research Council alongside Klan chapters. The SPLC's accusation against the Family Research Council inspired a domestic terrorism attack in 2012.

"It's self-evident how this entity is very dangerous to people of faith, to institutions that have a conservative worldview," Brad Dacus, president and founder of the Pacific Justice Institute, told The Daily Signal in an interview Tuesday. The SPLC brands Pacific Justice Institute an "anti-LGBTQ+ hate group" because it opposes the LGBTQ agenda.

While the SPLC does not appear directly on the task force, groups with close ties to it do have a presence there, as do other leftist groups.

The task force includes American University's Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab. PERIL's founding director, Cynthia Miller-Idriss, serves on the SPLC's Tracking Hate and Extremism Advisory Committee. Miller-Idriss presented to the task force in January.

Kate Bitz works at the Western States Center, an affiliate of the SPLC. She essentially endorsed the SPLC's 2020 hate map report.

Other groups include the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism, which demonizes opposition to gender ideology, and Black Lives Matter Seattle King County, which carried water for the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, an anarchist uprising amid the 2020 George Floyd riots. Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho also appears on the list.

The task force includes law enforcement organizations, but no explicitly conservative groups.

Dacus, who highlighted his organization's video condemning the SPLC, also condemned the Black Lives Matter chapter for "explicit support of anarchy."

Dacus warned of attempts to remove nonprofit status under Washington's tax code from "organizations that are accused of being hate groups."

The task force "could also put pressure on banks to close out financial accounts from churches, ministries, and organizations that don't bend the knee to their radical, intolerant perspectives," he added. The SPLC has pressured charities and financial institutions to blacklist "hate groups," with some success.

Dacus predicted that the task force will aim to "substantively make it painful to have a conservative or traditional worldview."

Mark Herr, president of the Center for Self-Governance (which SPLC brands an "anti-government extremist group"), echoed Dacus' warnings.

"The SPLC has labeled mainstream organizations that advocate for civic education, religious liberty, pro-life policies, border security, and election integrity as 'extremist,' raising concerns that Washington's domestic violent extremism task force could adopt similar definitions," he told The Daily Signal. "If this occurs, conservatives could be unfairly monitored, censored, or even penalized under the guise of combating extremism."

He further warned of "government surveillance, financial blacklisting, or even legal consequences."

"The government must ensure that efforts to combat domestic violent extremism focus on actual threats of violence, rather than targeting political opponents," Herr concluded.

The Washington Policy Center, which has previously criticized the domestic extremism effort, also raised concerns about the task force.

David Boze, the center's communications director, told The Daily Signal that conflating "speech with actual violence" undermines free speech. "It is an effective way of preempting debate by disparaging an opponent, rather than engaging in the free exchange of ideas."

"It is possible definitions could be construed in such a way as to smear ideological opponents by categorizing them alongside violent and terrorist groups," he warned. Yet Boze ultimately expressed confidence in the U.S. Constitution to protect Washingtonians from the worst excesses.

He warned that the effort will divert resources away from the "serious issues of violence and crime."

Dacus, the PJI president, urged anyone who suffers harm from the task force to reach out to his organization for a potential lawsuit.

"We at the Pacific Justice institute want to make it very clear: If any organization or ministry is attacked because of their traditional religious beliefs or Judeo-Christian worldview, we want them to contact us immediately so we can help them examine their potential legal recourse," he told The Daily Signal. He noted that PJI has 36 offices, three in Washington state.

Originally published at The Daily Signal