There was a time when the Southern Poverty Law Center draped itself in the language of justice and sold America a comforting myth: we are the guardians standing between decent society and hate. School boards believed it. Administrators signed off on it. Teachers were handed glossy materials stamped with moral authority. Parents were expected to nod along.

Now the costume is in tatters.

Behind the halo was a machine—wealthy, ruthless, political, and deeply corrupt. An organization that built prestige by condemning others while accumulating scandal after scandal of its own: defamation controversies, internal racism complaints, leadership implosions, financial secrecy, politicized smears, accusations of deceptive fundraising, and troubling allegations involving paid relationships with extremists it publicly used as proof of its own necessity.

The group that made a fortune warning the public about monsters has repeatedly profited from keeping monsters in the room. And this is the organization some public schools invited into classrooms to shape the moral........

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