Sabal vs ADL – Stopping Anti-First Amendment Bullies
On December 13, 2024, The Honorable Reed O’Connor, Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Fort Worth Division, in an 18-page order, dismissed Mr. Sabal’s claims regarding injurious falsehoods, left intact his claims that the ADL defamed him by including him in its “Glossary of Extremism and Hate” and implying that he is a “dangerous, extremist threat, and even a criminal.”
Judge O’Connor also left intact Sabal’s defamation claim regarding the ADL’s “Hate in the Lone Star State” report for similar reasons.
Plaintiff, Mr. John Sabal, a disabled Navy veteran who organizes patriotic festivals and has never been arrested, alleges that the ADL defamed him when it published his name in the ADL Center on Extremism’s “Glossary of Extremism and Hate,” which includes notorious terrorists and mass shooters, and claims as its mission to “monitor, expose and disrupt extremist threats.”
A statement from Warren Norred of Norred Law reads:
Norred Law is honored to represent John Sabal in his defamation suit against the Anti-Defamation League, which ironically has a penchant for defaming anyone with the moniker of “anti-Semite” who doesn’t match their political positions.
This case has been going on for just over a year, and discovery has been completed. We were asked to step in after the ADL sought summary judgment and failed. Judge O’Connor’s order on that motion carefully evaluated Mr. Sabal’s complaint, dismissed his claims regarding injurious falsehoods, left intact his claim that the ADL defamed him by including him in its “Glossary of Extremism and Hate” and implying that he is a “dangerous, extremist threat, and even a criminal.” Judge O’Connor also left intact Sabal’s claim regarding the ADL’s “Hate in the Lone Star State”.
Litigants often try to spin a denial of a motion for summary judgment. Certainly, Mr. Sabal is glad to see his claims remain alive after the full-throated attack on them from the ADL, but no one should see the court’s order and read into it more than what was stated – Mr. Sabal filed a valid complaint and a jury should be the trier of fact next year during trial.
I have been asked why we took this case, and I’m eager to explain. The Anti-Defamation League is a Non-Governmental Organization (“NGO”), one of several which have left their moorings and are nothing more than anti-First Amendment bullies, along with the American Civil Liberties Union, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and Media Matters. All these organizations were, perhaps at one time, honest brokers of information, but now use slash-and-burn name-calling to shut people down, as the ADL attempts to do with its list of alleged “anti-Semitic criminals.”
The left’s war on free speech must be rejected, and cultural critics should be able to offer their opinions without fear of being called heinous names. We mean to help Mr. Sabal in a trial next year and protect him from an ADL that is so perverted in its behavior that it is now practicing behavior that is directly contrary to its name.
In 2023, The Gateway Pundit reported that Sabal, the founder and President of The Patriot Voice, filed a $25M lawsuit against the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) alleging defamation and injurious falsehood.
The ADL listed Sabal in its “Glossary of Extremists” which includes known terrorists Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Dylann Roof, and Brenton Terrant, the Christchurch Shooter
While the organization claims ADL’s goal is to “fight all forms of antisemitism and bias, using innovation and partnerships to drive impact,” it has increasingly been accused of partisanship smears against targets on the political right.
The Patriot Voice hosts events county that brings together dynamic speakers and grassroots activists who love God and this country with a stated goal to “ensure that all who attend will leave the events with new hope for this country and its future, and with a new vigor and passion to go home and get involved in their respective communities.”
Prior featured speakers have included James O’Keefe, General Michael Flynn, Senator Wendy Rogers, Jim Caviezel and more.
The lawsuit alleges Defendant ADL maliciously targeted Mr. Sabal because of his politics and his success as an organizer of conservative Christian festivals and falsely accused him of being an extremist threat and of espousing anti-semitism.
The original complaint can be found below:
The recent MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER can be found here:
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