Sam Mattison
Alabama Political Reporter
The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against a self-proclaimed Neo-Nazi in a federal court in Montana.
Andrew Anglin, the publisher of the Trump-supporting Neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer, is the defendant in the case and is accused of using his website to incite a harassment campaign against a Jewish woman in Whitefish, Montana.
He could not be reached for comment.
The SPLC is suing Anglin for invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress and for violating an anti-harassment law in Montana.
The situation in Whitefish, Montana, started out with a post on the blog site “Medium” by Sherry Spencer. Spencer is the mother of alt-right leader and self-proclaimed white supremacist Richard Spencer.
In the post, Spencer said she was being pressured by a non-profit group called Love Lives Here to sell a property that she owned in the town.
Spencer said she was contacted by Tanya Gersh, who is the plaintiff in the SPLC case, demanding that she sell her building in Whitefish, Montana and donate the money to the organization.
She said this was in response to the controversial remarks made by her son during a white supremacist rally in Washington.
She also said that the organization threatened to protest her property and even bring media attention to the town if she didn’t comply with their demands.
Love Lives Here have said they don’t know what Spencer is talking about.
In response to Spencer’s post, Anglin published an article with the phone numbers, email addresses and photos of people who he said were involved in harassing Spencer. He then encouraged his readers to contact those individuals to let them know they disagreed with their “Jewish agenda.”
He also attempted to organize a demonstration in Whitefish, Montana, but failed to obtain a permit from the city.
The Missoulian, a local Montana news outlet, reported that multiple members in the community were being harassed after the publishing of the article.
After The Daily Stormer’s article was published, Sherry Spencer published an addendum to her post on “Medium” denouncing any harassment towards the members of Love Lives Here.
“I disavow the harassment that anyone faced as a result of these events first being brought to light by the media even prior to this publication of my side of the story,” the addendum said. “After all, my own family and I have faced — and continue to face — numerous threats and bullying on social media as well.”
In March, APR published an article based on a speech given by Chief Trial Counsel and Co-Founder of the SPLC Morris Dees where he said the organization would file a lawsuit in April against a “large internet hate group” who was “harassing a Jewish family.” The Daily Stormer was one of the groups who was highly suspected of being a candidate for the lawsuit.
