American Civil Rights Review

Civil Rights is always controversial. Those who demand more rights for their groups step on the previous rights of others. Someone has to give up something for someone else to gain something. This causes dissention, debate, and numerous studies of each situation. This section of American Civil Rights Review is dedicated to these discussions.

Matt Hale is an outspoken racist. For many years, he has been the head of the white separatist church which calls itself The Church of the Creator. Matt's church believes in white superiority in terms of intelligence, inventiveness, and civility. According to observers around the nation, Matt Hale's Church of the Creator does not allow non-Whites to join. If you want to hear Matt Hale being interviewed by Hate Watch in Real Audio, click here.

So, when the Illinios Bar Association--which certifies lawyers in that state--decided to deny Matt Hale his license to practice law based on his racist views, Matt Hale called Alan Derschowitz, a famous Jewish lawyer who is a professor at Harvard University.

Oh, yes. Matt Hale says he is an anti-Semite, a person who dislikes Jews....

In this area, ACRR will attempt to track this interesting and important "case of law."

January 4, 1999, The Daily Vidette -- Rev. Matt Hale, a self-proclaimed white supremacist suing ISU over 1st amendment rights, went public Monday with an announcement he hired former O.J. Simpson lawyer Alan Dershowitz to represent him in another lawsuit.

The lawsuit will be filed against the Illinois State Bar Association because Hale said he was denied a license to practice law based on his racial and religious beliefs.

Hale began the press conference with a quote he attributed to Abraham Lincoln.

"I will say then that I am not nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races," he said.

Lincoln, Hale said, was able to practice law so he should also not be denied his right to a license.

"I am being denied a law license right now because I don't believe in the political and social equality of the white and black races," he said.

One reporter asked Hale what he thought about lawyer fees from Dershowitz being donated to minority groups.

"If it is true it doesn't bother me," he said. "There won't be many fees -- (minority groups) have more money than they can spend anyway."

Hale went on to talk about the affects he hopes the upcoming lawsuit will have on the government.

Denying him a law license, Hale said, goes to show how fearful some people in government power are now.

"(People) are afraid of someone who has the guts to speak for their beliefs.

"The system we live in today is rigged against white interests," he said.

The committee on character and fitness denied Hale his license after an inquiry panel decided in December his racial views were "incompatible with being an attorney."

Hale said he believes character is speaking one's mind and not just believing what the majority says.

"That's why I'm in this situation -- we need lawyers out there who say what they think," he said. "There are a lot more racist attorneys out there than just me."

The next step, Hale said, is to appear in front of a hearing board in Springfield.

In addition a conference about his case, Hale talked of his church and his beliefs.

"We are people who love our own kind. We want to take care of the white people," Hale said.

If whites take care of their own kind, other races will "wither on the vine," he said. "In my view, this is not hatred."

This will take place through education, he said, not extermination.

Hale received his law degree in May 1998 from Southern Illinois University and has passed his bar exam.

Hale is the leader of the World Church of the Creator, believing in Creativity.

According to the Creator Membership Manual's 16 commandments "the guiding principle of all your actions shall be: What is best for the White Race?"

It goes on to say "Remember that the inferior mud races are our deadly enemies, and the most dangerous of all is the Jewish race. It is our immediate objective to relentlessly expand the White Race, and keep shrinking our enemies."

February 4, 1999, The Journal Star, EAST PEORIA, ILLINOIS - Avowed white supremacist Matt Hale is fighting to practice law in Illinois after he says his racial beliefs were used to deny his license.

Joining him in the battle will be celebrity attorney Alan Dershowitz, a professor at Harvard Law School.

Dershowitz, who is Jewish, agreed to help despite Hale's anti-Semitic preachings.

"Although I find his views utterly reprehensible and despicable, I don't believe anybody should be denied admission to the bar on the basis of their views," Dershowitz told the Associated Press on Friday.

Hale, 27, passed the bar exam last fall after completing law school at Southern Illinois University.

However, he was rejected for admission to the Illinois State Bar Association in December after he failed a character and fitness test given by a panel of lawyers and judges appointed by the state Supreme Court.

A member of the panel, Circuit Judge Gregory McClintock of McDonough County, said Hale's racist views are "incompatible with being a lawyer," according to Hale. McClintock could not be reached for comment.

"Character committees should not become thought police," Dershowitz said. "It's not the content of the thoughts I'm defending, it's the freedom of everybody to express their views and to become lawyers."

Hale, who promotes himself as a minister with the World Church of the Creator, contacted Dershowitz for help.

"I actually gave him a call," Hale said. "I explained the situation, and he saw it as a core First Amendment issue.

"He's a great attorney," Hale said of Dershowitz, "but I won't change my views. I'm an anti-Semite. I freely say it. I recognize we are involved in a crucial struggle, and I'll utilize whatever means are necessary."

Hale admitted that another attraction to Dershowitz was the prospect of "national attention being brought to my case," allowing Hale's views to reach "a wider forum."

Dershowitz denied that his publicity would help Hale. He said he plans to donate whatever legal fees Hale pays him to not-for-profit organizations that fight racism.

Dershowitz became widely known in his support for O.J. Simpson at the athlete's murder trial.

Hale said a Chicago attorney also would represent him when an appeals hearing is held in Springfield before a five-member panel regarding admission to the Illinois bar. Hale said a time had not yet been established for the hearing.

A state bar association spokesman said licensing of lawyers is handled by the Illinois Board of Admissions to the Bar. That group consists of seven attorneys appointed by the state Supreme Court and oversees all aspects of bar admissions in the state.

As part of that process, every prospective lawyer must receive approval from the board's character and fitness committee, which rejected Hale.

"If you pass the bar, the hurdle is really character and fitness," said James Grogan, chief counsel for the state Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission. He said each judicial district has a separate committee, and the members look for 13 "red flags" in an applicant's background that may warrant further investigation.

They include "evidence of instability or impaired judgment," as well as dishonesty and criminal activity.

Little data is available on how many law license applicants are rejected by character and fitness committees, Grogan said.

An article in the Chicago Lawyer in September 1997 indicated that 6,180 people applied for law licenses from 1994 through 1996 in Cook County. Of those, 65, or about 1 percent, were rejected by the character and fitness committee.

"There's no reason to think those percentages would be any different anywhere else in the state," Grogan said.

Hale is back in his native East Peoria after working briefly at a Champaign law firm until November.

Hale first found notoriety as a Bradley University student in the early'90s, when he led the American White Supremacist Party in Peoria.

After failing to land a seat on the East Peoria City Council in 1995, Hale said he formed his church based on the teachings of Ben Klassen, who set up the Church of the Creator before his death in 1993.

Acknowledging that no actual church building exists, Hale describes the group as a "dynamic, religious organization" that "seeks to insure the survival, advancement and expansion of the white race."

Last week, Hale sued Illinois State University over a canceled speaking engagement in December 1998. The speech was canceled when student leaders learned of his racist views.

Last January, Hale was cited by Pekin police for littering after he tried to distribute racist newspapers to several homes.

Christopher Thorne of The Associated Press and Chris Dettro of Copley News Service contributed to this story.

EAST PEORIA, Ill., February 9, 1999, By TARA BURGHART, Associated Press Writer (AP) - In three years of law school, Matt Hale made decent grades, participated in student groups and played violin in two orchestras. He also helped revive a white supremacist group that advocates a racial holy war.

Hale graduated last May, passed the bar exam and was hired by an Illinois law firm. But he never got his law license, snubbed by a state committee that reviews the ``character and fitness'' of prospective attorneys.

The panel, comprised of two lawyers and a judge, cited his racist leanings.

Hale is ``free ... to incite as much racial hatred as he desires and to attempt to carry out his life's mission of depriving those he dislikes of their legal rights,'' panel members wrote in their 2-1 opinion in December.

``But in our view he cannot do this as an officer of the court.''

Miffed by the vote - all but 25 of more than 3,000 applicants last year were approved - Hale has appealed to a separate state committee that could overturn the decision.

``The idea that I can't be lawyer because of my views is ludicrous,'' he said, sitting in a home office where an Israeli flag serves as a doormat, swastika stickers decorate the walls and the flag of Hale's group, the World Church of the Creator, hangs from a window. He is 27.

Hale's effort to gain a law license has attracted some unlikely supporters, including the Anti-Defamation League and renowned attorney Alan Dershowitz, who said he may help in Hale's appeal.

``Character committees should not become thought police,'' Dershowitz said. ``It's not the content of the thoughts I'm defending, it's the freedom of everybody to express their views and to become lawyers.''

As a boy in East Peoria, Hale immersed himself in books about Nazis and formed a ``Little Reich'' group at school. In high school and at Bradley University he attended ``white power'' rallies and sent letters filled with racial slurs to newspapers.

He also had brushes with the law, including a citation for littering after trying to distribute racist newspapers to homes. He was elected head of the World Church of the Creator while attending Southern Illinois University law school.

The church, founded in 1973 in Florida, espouses a racial holy war against Jews and blacks. One group member is serving a life sentence for killing a black sailor in Florida in 1991.

The church, which foundered for a few years, has thrived under Hale's leadership, according to the ADL. Hale's claim of as many as 30,000 supporters could not be verified.

Illinois officials say the last case similar to Hale's was in the early 1950s, when a law student refused to take an anti-Communist loyalty oath.

The U.S. Supreme Court last considered a similar case in 1971, when two applicants for law licenses in other states would not reveal their political beliefs. The court ruled in their favor.

The ADL believes Hale shouldn't be denied a law license because of the ``slippery slope'' it creates, said Andrew Shoenthal, assistant director in the group's Chicago office.

For instance, Shoenthal asked, could a prospective lawyer who opposes abortion or supports school prayer be denied a license if a majority in his community held an opposite view?

The Illinois State Bar Association has yet to take a position on Hale's case, but spokesman Dave Anderson said the case ``is a hot topic (among lawyers) right now, with spirited debate on both sides.''

Hale, meanwhile, was fired by the law firm because he couldn't obtain the license. He lives with his parents in East Peoria, with an office in their home.

He is optimistic he'll get his license and plans to open a solo practice. He hopes to challenge affirmative action laws and the littering law for which he was cited.

``For me, the true test of character is whether a person says what they think, which is what I have always done,'' Hale said. ``I believe I show more character than most attorneys in that I actually practice what I preach.''

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