Southern Poverty Law Center President and CEO Richard Cohen delivered a letter (PDF) to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld calling for a zero-tolerance policy regarding racist extremism in the U.S. military.
An ordinance designed to penalize undocumented immigrants, under consideration by the Avon Park, Fla., city council, raises serious constitutional issues and will likely lead to protracted litigation.
Under pressure to meet wartime manpower goals, the U.S. military has relaxed standards designed to weed out racist extremists. Large numbers of potentially violent neo-Nazis, skinheads and other white supremacists are now learning the art of warfare in the armed forces.