Judge axes lawsuit over site’s hate group label on charities

A federal judge in Virginia has thrown out a lawsuit over “hate group” labels that were given to dozens of nonprofit groups on a website that maintains a database of information about U.S. charities.

U.S. District Judge Raymond Jackson ruled Tuesday that the First Amendment protects GuideStar USA Inc.’s “expressive right to comment on social issues.”

Liberty Counsel Inc., a Florida-based legal advocacy organization, sued GuideStar last June after the site flagged it and 45 other nonprofits for being labeled as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Liberty Counsel said the label is slanderous and damaged its reputation.

The group also claimed GuideStar’s use of the labels was “commercial speech” that violated the Lanham Act, but the judge rejected that argument and dismissed the lawsuit.