The frustrated parents of female athletes at Dakota Ridge High School are speaking out over an escalating locker room dispute, demanding answers after district officials placed a transgender player on the girls' junior varsity volleyball roster.

Four Dakota Ridge parents spoke with OutKick this week as tension in the gym turned into open opposition. Following the public outcry sparked by parents like Tanna Donalson, whose daughter and seven other juniors were cut from the volleyball program, outspoken fathers are now stepping forward alongside mothers to challenge state policies that elevate gender identity over female athletics.

Families are pressing Jefferson County Public Schools (Jeffco) for accountability, refusing to back down despite reported retaliation from school and district staff against those who question the policy.

EX-SJSU VOLLEYBALL COACH ALLEGES TRANS PLAYER FAILED TESTOSTERONE TEST, RESULT WAS KEPT 'SECRET' FROM TEAM

The conflict centers on district leadership invoking state non-discrimination guidelines to open female locker rooms to the player, even as coaching staff cut more than 35 female athletes from the program, as OutKick previously reported.

OutKick observed the fallout firsthand during matches against Standley Lake on Monday and Littleton on Wednesday.

Colorado parents challenge Jeffco's leadership

Jefferson County Public Schools, Colorado's second-largest school district, has offered only one formal remedy for female athletes who object to sharing facilities: directing them to seek private changing spaces elsewhere in the building.

"The girls' locker room is a sacred space. What’s happening at Dakota Ridge is a slow burn to that sacred space," said Josh, a Dakota Ridge father in attendance at Wednesday's match who went on the record regarding the ongoing issue.

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"The Jeffco School Interim Superintendent said that they need to respect the privacy of all students. I guess 'all students' aren’t the 50-plus girls on the volleyball teams that use the girls' locker room. Dakota Ridge said they will make accommodations for girls who are uncomfortable in the locker room. That should be the other way around."

Internal emails obtained by OutKick show district leadership anticipated the dispute, quietly preparing weeks in advance while leaving parents and players blindsided when the athlete was placed on the roster without warning.

In an Oct. 6 email to district leadership, Dakota Ridge Athletic Director Jeff Legault warned: "I heard that meetings were held weeks ago to discuss a plan for this scenario, which is unfolding exactly the way it was predicted."

With the JV season ending, parent concerns deepened after coaching staff threatened to bench players overheard discussing the freshman athlete.

"DR staff and the district knew about this issue and kept it a secret. It’s still the elephant in the room," Josh said, noting that a former coach whose daughters played for Dakota Ridge subsequently stepped away from the program.

Josh estimated varsity parents are fractured into three camps: "25% don’t care or somehow think this is a fight against Trump, 50% just want this to go away, and 25% are fighting."

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Coach Zeman confronted over retaliation threats

Beyond locker room access, parents report a pervasive fear of retaliation.

Matters escalated when head coach Matthew Zeman allegedly threatened two players with benching after they were overheard discussing the situation in a school parking lot. Carey, the mother of one of the varsity athletes, sent a statement to OutKick, confirming details of the confrontation.

"A few weeks ago, my daughter and one of her teammates were told they couldn’t play in a volleyball game, nor could they attend the game after having a private conversation in the parking lot with a few other volleyball teammates about a transgender player they had heard of on the JV team," Carey said.

"After the other parent and I met with the coach and the athletic director, they reversed this, and they allowed them to play in the game, even though they didn’t even have any idea what the girls had said."

Carey said that the threat followed her daughter's earlier concerns regarding locker room arrangements.

"My daughter had also expressed concern about being uncomfortable in the locker room with this player. She was told that they could make accommodations for her, not the other player," Carey said.

"Now, as a parent, my number one concern is safety. Feeling safe and comfortable in a locker room is critical. Not only that, there’s fairness in female sports, and there’s the ability to speak up and talk about your concerns without feeling punished."

Carey, a Dakota Ridge mother who has worked with disabled individuals for over 30 years, emphasized that her concerns stem from basic fairness.

"I know all about inclusion, respect, fairness, and making things work. This situation has become out of hand, and I feel like we have to start asking better questions. We have to start coming up with better solutions while respecting everybody involved," Carey added.

"This isn’t about disrespecting anyone. This is about making it fair for everybody involved: primarily, safety in a girls’ locker room, fairness in sports, and making sure our girls are able to speak up and feel respected."

Josh backed up that account, noting that Zeman accused the players of "bullying" simply for talking amongst themselves, yet failed to cite a single broken rule.

WOMEN WHO FACED BIOLOGICAL MALES IN GIRLS' SPORTS AND LOCKER ROOMS SPEAK OUT AHEAD OF WASHINGTON STATE VOTE

"When the couple of girls were talking about it in the parking lot, the coach found out about that and immediately pulled two of the girls out and was gonna bench them because they were talking, [calling it] bullying," Josh said. "And they asked, 'What did we do wrong?' And he couldn't name anything. And I feel like they were actually bullied by the coach for that. They're just talking amongst friends, as kids do in a parking lot with their varsity teammates."

Both Zeman and Jeffco Public Schools ignored repeated requests for comment. Approached directly inside the gym on Wednesday, Zeman refused to comment on the parents' frustrations.

Following a road match at Standley Lake on Monday, the team returned home Wednesday to face Littleton under heightened security, including an armed guard inside the gym. Parents reported seeing up to three security personnel at recent games.

The cold shoulder from district leadership was unquestioned. Josh watched the interim superintendent visit warmly with the trans athlete's family, then walk straight past the parents of the female players without uttering a word.

"He was there for them," Josh said.

Aaron, a Dakota Ridge parent who spoke on the record about the ongoing dispute, criticized the district's lack of transparency from the start.

"I think it's a little ridiculous how Jeffco is handling the situation. There should not be biological males in the girls' locker rooms. At any school in Jefferson County, Colorado, or the state of Colorado, for that matter," Aaron said. "And for them not to disclose this earlier in the season, it's very disappointing. They waited so long to disclose this information, you know, they put these girls in a very hard situation with not knowing."

When parents pressed for answers through formal channels, Aaron said district attorneys shut down the conversation entirely.

COLORADO HIGH SCHOOL VOLLEYBALL PLAYERS FACED ALLEGED BENCHING THREAT AMID TRANS ATHLETE DISPUTE

"The school really hasn't been communicating very well at all. They've been leaving almost like they're trying to sweep it under the rug," Aaron added. "We had a meeting with Jeffco Legal and they kind of said that they would answer questions and didn't answer any questions at all, didn't give us any time. And they said they'd get back to us and we haven't heard anything since."

Zachary, a Jeffco father of three with a daughter in the district, didn't hold back when texting OutKick about the administration's backward priorities.

"The absurdity of trans girls (boys, in real life) playing on girls' teams is beyond lunacy," Zachary texted. "How did we get here? Why is Jeffco and these other districts so tied up in this fad? We have a mental health crisis and these school districts are manipulating and grooming these children without parental consent."

"What about women’s rights?" he added. "No boys in girls' sports unless they’re co-ed. Period. The government needs to step in and right this ship, ASAP."

And volleyball may be just the start for trans inclusion in Dakota Ridge girls' athletics.

"From what I hear, they are trying out for the basketball team this upcoming season," Aaron said. "I don't know if the coach has handled this yet or not, but from what I hear there are girls that aren't going to play or try out because of it."

With district administrators digging in, parents are taking their case directly to the November ballot. Grassroots momentum has coalesced around Proposition 134 to keep male athletes off female sports rosters, alongside Proposition 135, which would prohibit gender-affirming surgeries on minors.

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It has been an uphill climb from the start, but parents say silence is no longer an option. Regardless of what policies future administrations roll out, these families are speaking up now. By exposing Jeffco’s failure to stand up for female students, they hope to fix a broken system and save girls' sports for their daughters.

Send us your thoughts: alejandro.avila@outkick.com / Follow along on X: @alejandroaveela

A Trump-appointed judge was ordered to undergo a psychiatric examination as part of an ongoing judicial misconduct investigation after she called a Latino attorney a "White savior" who was intimidated by "Black excellence" due to his "White mediocrity" during a hearing.

U.S. District Judge Ada Brown of the Northern District of Texas, who is Black and Native American, was temporarily removed from her docket by the Fifth Circuit Judicial Council earlier this month, following a May judicial-conduct complaint filed by attorney Ezra Young, whose permission to practice before Brown had previously been revoked.

The complaint centered on Brown's rhetoric toward Young during his appearance for a show-case hearing, in which he was facing sanctions over allegations from Brown that he shared sealed court filings online. Young represented a Black law professor who sued Southern Methodist University, alleging she was denied tenure because of discrimination. He joined the case in 2022 and appeared before Brown before the judge barred him from practicing in her courtroom.

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During the April hearing, Brown railed against Young, accusing him of "bullying" the Black attorneys on the case.

"You’re the White savior, come to save all the stupid Black lawyers in Texas who need your help from New York," Brown later said, according to the transcript obtained by Bloomberg.

Brown repeatedly brought attention to Young's skin color, calling him "White presenting" and "fair-skinned" after Brown told her that he was a Latino.

"I think what’s happening here, quite candidly, is you are very intimidated for some reason, Mr. Young, with Black excellence, in light of your White mediocrity. Yeah. Right?" Brown said. "You should write that down. I mean, you — I’m — you look like a White man, right?"

She also called Young a "Chad" which she said is the male version of "Karen."

"It’s someone who calls the manager when they don’t get their way. They stomp their foot when the rules are supposed to apply to them, right?" Brown said.

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Brown also accused Young of sensationalizing the case after reading a news article that quoted his brief and referenced another law professor’s comparison of the Black professor’s treatment in the tenure dispute to a "lynching."

"And so when I read a headline — a sensationalized, very racialized headline that says, ‘it’s like I’ve been lynched,’ and it’s literally got no connection to this case, I have to ask you, Mr. Social Media, Main Character Chad, White Hero, Savior, Loves to Help Black People Be An Ally, where the lynching in this case came from?" Brown said.

The release of the April court hearing transcripts comes as Brown shared with lawyers, judges and several media outlets via email of Young's complaint and her response.

Meanwhile, in a July 28 filing responding to Young's complaint, Brown stood by her conduct.

"I do not believe my demeanor was inappropriate at any time, especially during the candid conversations about race," Brown wrote.

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"I take to heart the lessons I have learned from this experience and I ask the Chief Judge to weigh this candor, as well as my commitment to being mentored by senior judges with more experience in such situations when determining an appropriate disposition," Brown wrote. "I realize the importance of public confidence in the judiciary and take to heart my role in fostering the public’s faith in it."

President Donald Trump appointed Brown to the federal court in Texas in March 2019. She is the first Black woman to serve in that court.

For years, Democrats — especially "mainstream" (left-wing) reporters — have pretended President Trump persecutes the press. Their current silence is deafening after Democratic Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty just brought bogus and stunning felony charges against two conservative journalists, Cam Higby and James O'Keefe, for having the audacity to expose Minnesota's woefully lax voter security protocols. In other words, Moriarty illegally charged two reporters for doing their jobs.

Moriarty’s illegal felony charges against disfavored reporters for non-crimes crossed a glaring red line, and the Trump Justice Department must immediately and publicly open a civil rights criminal case against Moriarty and others for conspiring to violate and violating Higby and O’Keefe’s First Amendment constitutional rights, under 18 U.S.C. §§ 241 and 242. If the evidence is there, which it seems obvious, Moriarty must face federal charges immediately. Anything short of this turns a blind eye to an extraordinarily dangerous open season on America’s free press.

Every illegal vote, as a matter of basic arithmetic, disenfranchises a legal voter. Election integrity requires public confidence in the system's security. Tina Peters faced nearly a decade in prison for revealing serious election flaws in Colorado until Democratic Gov. Jared Polis courageously commuted her sentence. Following Peters' lead, Higby and O'Keefe set out to test Minnesota's voting system for weaknesses. Higby wore a burqa and posed as a registered voter. He also vouched for a companion he said was registered as well. He filmed the exchange with poll workers to show his online audience just how vulnerable the system really is.

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The video shows that Higby never had to present photo identification. His word alone cleared his companion, who also produced no ID. To be clear, neither cast a ballot. The exercise simply aimed to demonstrate, as Higby certainly did, how easily someone can manipulate Minnesota's elections.

The state's U.S. Senate race between Republican Michele Tafoya and far-left Democrat Peggy Flanagan is tightening. The stakes are high: The race could decide control of the Senate chamber. Only lawful voters should cast ballots, and the law limits federal elections to American citizens.

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What Higby and O'Keefe did was vintage investigative journalism, not voter fraud. The First Amendment guarantees a free press to protect this precise kind of work. If prosecutors can punish undercover journalism with felony charges, oversight by the Fourth Estate will dramatically diminish. Fear of prosecution and prison will chill would-be investigators whenever the powers-that-be dislike a story, such as one revealing insecure ballot safeguards.

But Moriarty, a Democrat lawfare crusader, does not care about any of this. She only cares about getting plaudits from top Democrat brass — and power — at any and all costs, including imprisoning reporters.

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Moriarty applies the law selectively. The case of Turning Point USA activist Savannah Hernandez proves it. Three agitators assaulted Hernandez in front of numerous witnesses and cameras captured the attack. Moriarty pursued only misdemeanor charges — a slap on the hand. Fortunately, federal prosecutors stepped in and filed felony charges against the three alleged attackers. Yet Moriarty now seeks to convict Higby and O'Keefe of serious crimes, though they attacked no one and neither voted illegally nor actually attempted to vote in the first place.

Moriarty's lawfare demands a federal response. Federal law, specifically 18 U.S.C. § 242, makes it a crime to willfully deprive anyone of constitutional rights under color of law. And 18 U.S.C. § 241 makes it a crime to conspire with others to do the same. Moriarty should go after fraudsters at the ballot box and those behind billions in bogus claims against Medicaid. Instead, she is hounding two journalists for doing their jobs: showing the public how dismal Minnesota's election protections are.

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Higby and O'Keefe should not face criminal charges. But Moriarty and her co-conspirators must. Indicting them would send a resounding message to Soros-backed and other leftist district attorneys across the nation: Lawfare will carry dire legal consequences. Prosecutors must meet the highest standards. After all, as the left intoned during the anti-Trump lawfare years, no one is above the law.

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There is a reason that Megan Rapinoe only does interviews with people she knows won't challenge her. It's the only way the former soccer star won't end up red-faced or storming off in a fit of rage.

Her answers leave her too vulnerable. Her comments sit on the summit of Mindless Mountain.

Her recent sit-down with comedian W. Kamau Bell proved as much.

MEGAN RAPINOE SAYS WOMEN'S SPORTS ARE FACING 'REGRESSION' OF 'EQUAL RIGHTS' IN NEW KAMALA HARRIS INTERVIEW

Among the topics the pair discussed was trans people in women's sports, which Rapinoe has been a staunch advocate for.

Here's how it started.

Bell: "There's a lot of talk about how damaging trans women are to sports, so I give you credit for not being afraid to stand with trans people of all types, but also trans women in sports."

Rapinoe: "I am appalled, I think at just, like, the lack of basic humanity and empathy that people are showing and just the amount of fear and hate, and I just think the silence of athletes is a lot."

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Basic humanity and empathy? Fear and hate? One could just as easily argue — or better yet, more convincingly argue — that she lacks empathy toward the women and girls who are losing competitions or sharing locker rooms with biological males. Last week, I saw a girl forfeit her cross country season because she chose not to race against a boy. She wasn't giddy about this. She broke down in tears while hugging her mother. Does Rapinoe feel empathy for her?

As for athletes being silent? Megan might want to take that as a sign. It's probably not that they're afraid to stand with her on this issue — it's that they likely disagree with her, as do most Americans. And unlike Rapinoe, who can't lose a spot to a male, these athletes are still active and under that threat.

The interview continued.

Bell: "Why aren't you afraid of trans women in sports? Because that's the big fear is that it's like, suddenly it's LeBron James with a wig on, blah blah blah."

Rapinoe: "Yeah, and that example isn't happening, and I don't think it's ever going to happen. I think there's a lot that trans people have to go through. If you're a trans person in sports to even play, it's like you couldn't just say, one day, 'I'm a woman' and go play. That's not how it works."

Excuse me, but ... HAHAHA. That is exactly what happened with the high school cross country runner in Camas, Washington. He started the year on the boys team, finishing 76th in a junior varsity race. Then he switched to the girls team, where he's won one varsity race and finished second in three others. And not that it should matter, but he hasn't seemed to do anything to try and present himself as a girl. Not even a name change. So, yeah, Megan — it's happening.

Rapinoe continued with the pièce de résistance: "And for me, one of the biggest things is God forbid somebody be good at sports and have some sort of advantage — and, by the way, sports is not fair in any sort of way ever. Right?"

Bell (clapping his hands): "Yeah, it's not meant to be fair."

Rapinoe: "Yeah, what's fair?"

Bell: "I always point to [the 7-foot-4 Spurs center] Victor Wembanyama. Is that fair?"

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Rapinoe: "What does that mean, even? It's already not fair, and also, just like, it isn't the most important thing in the world over someone's human rights or getting to play or being cruel to people. I don't know. I've won everything at every level, and played, you know in sort of every competition, and I'm just kind of like, I'm the one who could speak to it. Like, I'm okay if God forbid a trans person play sports and they're halfway decent at it."

Yes, Rapinoe has won at everything at every level and played in every sort of competition. But do you know what one of those competitions was? Her U.S. National team playing a group of 15-year-old boys from Dallas and losing 5-2. So, in that sense, she is uniquely qualified to speak to boys playing in girls sports. She knows they'll kick girls' behinds.

But even more asinine is the notion that sports aren't meant to be fair — along with Bell's attempt to equate Wembanyama's natural advantages with those of a transgender athlete.

If sports weren't meant to be fair, there wouldn't be rules or referees. There wouldn't be punishments for performing enhancing drug use, weight classes in boxing or age limits in Little League. There is always going to be someone who's the best — whether it be Usain Bolt, Michael Jordan or Michael Phelps. But exhibiting athletic supremacy isn't unfair. Allowing men in women's sports, on the other hand, defies the very reason we separate the sexes. Simply put: If there was no separation, women's sports wouldn't exist.

Personally, I don't think Rapinoe actually believes what she's saying. She saw firsthand what those 15-year-olds did to the best women's international soccer team in the world.

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She's pandering to a woke crowd and refuses to be challenged. The woman famous for kneeling only accepts interviewers who bend their knee to her.

Alaska Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola is facing an onslaught of social media criticism over a resurfaced quote that critics say reeks of hypocrisy, following an explosive New York Times report this week.

"It should be a criminal offense to lie or mislead the electorate," Peltola says in the clip from August posted by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) on Wednesday, shortly after The New York Times reported that her campaign was actively involved in a scheme to peel votes away from incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan by recruiting namesake and spoiler candidates.

Conservatives on social media quickly shared the post and suggested that Peltola should be investigated based on her own words.

"Your terms are acceptable," Townhall columnist Dustin Grage posted on X.

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"Turn yourself in, Mary Peltola," conservative radio host Jason Rantz posted on X.

"Amen, Mary! " former Trump campaign national press secretary Hogan Gidley posted on X.

"Well, that’s ironic… ," Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., posted on X.

"Agree!!! " Fox News contributor Marc Thiessen posted on X.

ALASKA'S GOVERNOR ORDERS INVESTIGATION AFTER NYT REPORT ON ALLEGED DEM-LINKED SENATE ELECTION SCHEME

The New York Times report rocked the Alaska Senate race, which could determine the balance of power in the Senate, as questions now swirl over the legality of the campaign's alleged actions. The Department of Justice and the state of Alaska are both investigating the genesis of the alleged scheme to recruit Dan J. Sullivan into the race against incumbent Dan S. Sullivan.

Fox News learned Wednesday that federal prosecutors are conducting an "aggressive criminal investigation" into how the second Sullivan secured a spot on Alaska's ballot, according to two sources familiar with the probe. Investigators are preparing grand jury subpoenas and examining potential violations of voters' rights, with the investigation expected to continue beyond Election Day. The DOJ declined to comment.

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Alaska's Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced that he was ordering a probe into the matter.

"Today’s New York Times reporting reveals disturbing new evidence of an organized effort to manipulate Alaska’s elections by recruiting candidates — including one with the same name as an incumbent U.S. Senator — to deliberately confuse voters and misdirect their votes. The Alaska Division of Elections investigated these very concerns in June of this year. The new reporting substantially supports the Division’s findings," Dunleavy noted in a post on X.

"I am therefore directing the Department of Public Safety to investigate whether this scheme violated Alaska’s laws and whether criminal charges or civil action are warranted. The evidence will determine what happens next," the GOP governor continued.

The DOJ has issued dozens of subpoenas in the past 24 hours, reportedly looking into whether the campaign violated federal law by conspiring against the rights of voters. Others have argued the alleged actions are not illegal, and simply a "dirty trick" that is sometimes utilized in campaigns.

Fox News Digital reached out to Peltola's campaign for comment.

Peltola has dismissed reports of the alleged election scheme as "just another distraction," arguing that The New York Times’ report was solely purposed to "sell newspapers."

Her campaign also continues to assert innocence, previously telling Fox News in part that the Alaskans for Mary campaign "has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign."

Editor's note: This op-ed is part of a series by Eli Steele exploring White guilt in America and the West. Steele is the director of the newly released documentary essay, "White Guilt." See the film at WhiteGuiltFilm.com.

When I was a student at Claremont McKenna College in the 1990s, Morris Dees, the co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, came to speak. Over the years, I have forgotten what he spoke about, but what I do remember is seeing his gun when he adjusted his sports coat. It was the kind of gun that Clint Eastwood carried in "Dirty Harry," only Dees's was burnished silver, with the deep grooves of a six-shooter. Before the speech, he was billed as the man who took on the Ku Klux Klan, and the gun made the legend real. But to those of us in that room, the gun said something more. It told us that racism was alive and thriving, and that Dees needed that gun as a hedge against an evil that might attack at any moment.

Now we have learned that the legend Dees and the SPLC crafted and protected over the years has cost certain Americans their bank accounts.

In August 2024, the SPLC published an article that dismissed complaints from several Christian groups about debanking. The SPLC writer, R.G. Cravens, struck an accusatory tone against the Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom and said it "perpetuated a false conspiracy theory that claims big government and big corporations are victimizing conservative Christians."

SPLC SCANDAL UNDERSCORES HOW THE DEMAND FOR RACISM OUTSTRIPS THE SUPPLY | BOBBY BURACK

On Oct. 14, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency released a 47-page report on debanking at the nine largest banks it supervises. Regulators reviewed nearly 100,000 complaints and approximately 420,000 pages of bank records. The report found that four of those banks, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, PNC and TD Bank, referenced the SPLC while closing accounts or denying loans to conservative and religious customers.

The report's details are far more damning than the summary. WePay, a subsidiary of JPMorgan, screened customers against a list of terms that included "MAGA," "America First" and the names of SPLC-designated "hate groups." In July 2021, WePay closed an account that was raising money for a "devout Christian's" legal challenge to anti-discrimination laws.

In another case, PNC refused a line of credit to a media company because one owner's foundation "has funded several Christian conservative groups, including several identified as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center." A PNC employee explained, "I think it becomes really difficult to justify aligning ourselves with a company whose owners have built very public personas around opinions very contrary to PNC's beliefs/values."

What struck me was that none of these banks checked whether what the SPLC alleged was true. The regulators found that "mere allegations, negative press or negative reviews contributed to some banks declining to serve average Americans, even in the absence of any validation of the underlying facts or concerns."

It is hard to be shocked these days, but we must recover that ability. Why would a bank let an advocacy group decide who gets an account, without verification of any sort?

It wasn't long before I found the answer in the report: "Fear of being on the wrong side of public opinion led at least one bank to distance itself from certain customer affiliations that could possibly be viewed as partisan." The banks had labeled them a "reputation risk."

My father, Shelby Steele, has a better name for it: White guilt. He has spent forty years on this question. To paraphrase him, White guilt is the eternal drive by many Whites, especially those on the left, to prove their innocence of racism, to show over and over that they are not complicit in America's historical racial sins.

It is this drive that gives White guilt its transactional nature. In order to be able to buy innocence, someone has to have the innocence to sell. And to sell innocence, you need to possess moral authority when it comes to racial matters. The SPLC earned this moral authority in the deep south when it helped integrate the Alabama state troopers and sued the Klan after violent attacks.

But the White guilt machine needs a never-ending supply of hate. If racism begins to fade, then what innocence is there to sell?

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And the Klan ranks had been thinning for years. By the SPLC's own count, the number of Klan groups fell from 130 in 2016 to 72 a year later. The SPLC’s director of its Intelligence Project said they seemed to be "collapsing."

As the Klan shrank, the SPLC knew that it had to manufacture racism, and it did this by widening the definition of what could be counted as hateful and racist. It created the "Hate Map", which put mainstream Christian groups like the Family Research Council and Alliance Defending Freedom alongside the Ku Klux Klan and the Aryan Brotherhood. In 2021, it counted 733 "hate groups." In 2022, it counted 1,225 "hate and antigovernment extremist groups," many of them parents' groups focused on education. Today the list includes Moms for Liberty, PragerU and Turning Point USA.

Every bank knew it was the kiss of death to be seen doing business with the Klan. And when these bankers saw the Christian and conservative groups in the same category as the Klan, they took these accusations on faith. They cut off the customers the SPLC named. In return, they got their innocence. Their banks were cleansed of racists.

JPMorgan may have been the most savvy of them all. It donated to the SPLC and then its own subsidiary used the SPLC’s labels to close accounts it had flagged as racist. It bought innocence and, simultaneously, used it as a weapon.

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The power of White guilt is that it leverages the charge of racism mercilessly. It never has to prove the charge — the charge itself is enough. That has been the power of SPLC all along and it is a most lucrative one. The ones who paid were those who were accused of being Christians who hold the same views as millions of Americans. They were put into the race box and charged accordingly.

The gun that Morris Dees wore to my college turned out to be theater. We believed that it meant that racism was a living threat that might erupt any day now. Decades later, as I have followed the SPLC’s record, I have come to understand that the "Hate Map" is part of the same theater. The banks believed it because it was cheaper than challenging the methodologies of the SPLC and risking their judgement, the racist charge included.

This is the White guilt transaction that my father has long described and warned us against. The gift of this OCC report is that it reveals the truth that many of us have long suspected but could never answer. This report details what happened. But the harder question still remains: what do these banks, the SPLC and everyone who profited from this White guilt machine owe the people that they falsely put on that list?

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That gun never had to be fired. Neither did the Hate Map. The power was always in the accusation.

Shock and anger greeted the Pakistani Supreme Court's decision to uphold the conviction and death sentence of a Christian man accused of blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad. 

Supporters say the decision has far-reaching implications for human rights in Pakistan and for the country's standing on the international stage. The Open Doors 2026 World Watch List included the Asian nation in its top 10 list of countries where Christians face the most extreme persecution.

CeCe Heil, senior counsel and international legal director for the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), told Fox News Digital the case against brothers Amoon and Qaisar Ayub began in 2014. 

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Qaisar was arrested after a WordPress site displayed the Ayub brothers’ contact information and shared content that insulted the Prophet Muhammad. Amoon was arrested the following year. Heil says that in the 12 years of legal wrangling that followed, the Pakistani legal system has never presented evidence proving that either brother was truly affiliated with the offending WordPress blog site.

The ACLJ, through its Pakistani counterpart, the Organization for Legal Aid (OLA), began representing Amoon shortly after his arrest in 2015. Both brothers were sentenced to death in 2018. They unsuccessfully sought appeal in the Lahore High Court in 2022. After a continuation at the Supreme Court in 2025, Qaisar asked the OLA to represent him.

Following years of arguments and 13 postponed hearings, an Oct. 7 verdict from the Supreme Court saw Amoon acquitted after some 10 years in prison, while Qaisar’s conviction and death sentence was upheld.

Heil said a threatening atmosphere now attends many blasphemy hearings, where she says "mobs" commonly show up in courtrooms.

In one trial, she said a mob filmed themselves saying that "if the judge does not enforce death by hanging, we will kill him by our own hands." She said another video shows a prominent lawyer involved in numerous blasphemy cases celebrating the 15-year journey that led to Qaisar’s sentencing. A translation of the description reads, "There is only one punishment for one who insults the Prophet: The death penalty for Qaisar Ayub."

Heil said the precedent set by the Supreme Court’s decision could impact "every single person that is sitting in prison right now on blasphemy charges," which includes at least three OLA clients.

Other Christian men facing death include Shahzad Masih, who was 16 years old when he was accused of blasphemy in 2017. He was sentenced to death five years later. His appeals have repeatedly been postponed since 2022.

Intizar Masih is awaiting trial for a blasphemous post he is said to have shared on WhatsApp in 2023. Ahsan Masih was accused of posting blasphemous content to TikTok in 2023, and was sentenced to death the following year. His appeal hearings have also been postponed.

The OLA plans to file a review petition with the Supreme Court as early as this week, addressing the lack of evidence convicting Qaisar. They also plan to reach out directly to the Government of Pakistan to request support, including a presidential pardon for Qaisar. 

Heil said she finds it "very strange" for a country posturing itself as a "more tolerant" negotiator between world powers in the ongoing conflict in Iran to fail to protect the religious freedoms of its people.

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The Pakistani Embassy in Washington, D.C., did not respond to Fox News Digital’s questions about the possibility of a presidential pardon for Qaisar, or whether the Supreme Court’s decision could impact Pakistan’s perception in the West, or if justice can prevail in courtrooms mobbed with threatening onlookers.

A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the U.S. "is concerned about religious freedom in Pakistan and throughout the world" and "we regularly discuss this concern with Pakistan, as we would with any country."

Heil said the ACLJ has requested that Morris Tidball-Binz, the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, intercede on Qaisar’s behalf.

Tidball-Binz did not respond to Fox News Digital’s questions about whether he held concerns about the precedent set by the Supreme Court upholding Qaisar’s conviction.

The Human Rights Council secretariat provided a letter that Tidball-Binz and other U.N. officials wrote to the Government of Pakistan in September 2025, emphasizing their concerns about the cases of the Ayub brothers and Shahazad Masih. 

It stated, "Without making any judgment as to the accuracy of the information made available to us, we would like to express our grave concern about the imposition of the mandatory death penalty for blasphemy related charges against Mr. Shahzad Masih, Mr. Qaiser Ayub and Mr. Amoon Ayub, despite an apparent lack of conclusive evidence against them for acts and for offenses which do not qualify as ‘most serious crimes.’"

The U.N. officials concluded, "If the above allegations prove to be accurate, they would be in contravention of Mr. Shahazad Masih´s, Mr. Qaiser Ayub’s and Mr. Amoon Ayub’s rights to life, not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, not to be deprived arbitrarily of their liberty and to be afforded fair proceedings before an independent and impartial tribunal, to freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief, the right to express their opinion in a peaceful manner and the right to be equal before the law and are entitled to the equal protection of the law without any discrimination." 

The Government of Pakistan responded earlier this year, and outlined how "Under Pakistan's Constitution, such matters fall within the judicial domain, and the Executive is constitutionally prohibited from intervening in individual cases."

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Heil said that while Amoon has been spared from the death penalty, their work is ongoing to keep him safe from reprisals.