UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ____________________________________ ) CENTER FOR IMMIGRATION ) STUDIES, ) ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) v. ) Civil Action No. 19-0087 (ABJ) ) RICHARD COHEN, et al., ) ) Defendants. ) ____________________________________) MEMORANDUM OPINION Plaintiff, the Center for Immigration Studies (“CIS”), brought this civil suit against defendants, Richard Cohen and Heidi Beirich, two individuals who operate the Southern Poverty Law Center (“SPLC”), alleging a violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”), 18 U.S.C. § 1961 et seq. Compl. [Dkt. # 1]. Plaintiff alleges that defendants conspired to violate RICO when SPLC designated CIS a “hate group” in 2016. Id. ¶¶ 13, 28. Defendants moved to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a claim under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), Defs.’ Mot. to Dismiss [Dkt. # 11] (“Defs.’ Mot.”), and plaintiff opposed the motion. Pl.’s Opp. to Defs.’ Mot. [Dkt. # 13] (“Pl.’s Opp.”). Because plaintiff has not sufficiently alleged a predicate offense or a pattern of racketeering, the Court will grant defendants’ motion to dismiss. BACKGROUND The Center for Immigration Studies (“CIS”) is a non-profit organization incorporated in Washington, D.C. Compl. ¶ 3. CIS’s mission is “providing immigration policymakers, the academic community, news media, and concerned citizens with reliable information about the social, economic, environmental, security, and fiscal consequences of legal and illegal immigration into the United States. Id. ¶ 16. The Southern Poverty Law Center (“SPLC”) is a non-profit organization with its headquarters in Montgomery, Alabama. Compl. ¶ 7. The organization monitors and publishes investigative reports and expert analyses on groups that it identifies as extremist “hate groups.” Id. ¶ 11. Defendant Heidi Beirich leads SPLC’s Intelligence Project, which publishes a blog called “Hatewatch.” Id. ¶ 8. Richard Cohen is the President of SPLC, and as plaintiff puts it, “collaborates with Beirich in designating hate groups.” Id. ¶ 9. Plaintiff alleges that Cohen and Beirich designated CIS to be a hate group in 2016, although they knew that CIS did not meet SPLC’s definition for a hate group. Compl. ¶¶ 13, 18. SPLC’s definition is “an organization that – based on its official statements or principles, the statements of its leaders, or its activities – has beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics.” Id. ¶ 14. SPLC went on to publish thirteen blog posts on Hatewatch in which SPLC “reiterat[ed] that CIS was a hate group.” Id. ¶ 19. According to plaintiff, because being an immigrant is not an immutable characteristic, Compl. ¶ 15, and because the principles of CIS do not attack or malign an entire class of people, defendants’ hate group designation constitutes the crime of wire fraud within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. § 1343 because the blog posts were transmitted on the internet. Id. ¶¶ 20, 28. Plaintiff asserts that defendants’ goal was to “wreck” and “destroy” CIS financially. Id. ¶ 22. Plaintiff asserts that it has suffered damages in the form of ...
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