By
The Associated Press
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - No one questions that the World Church of the Creator is a racist group that sells books like "The White Man's Bible." No one questions that a former member went on a shooting spree and killed two people, both minorities.
But is it a charity? That's what the state Supreme Court must decide.
Attorney General Jim Ryan argues it is, meaning it should have registered with the state and filed financial disclosure forms. He wants to fine the organization and bar it from further fund-raising in Illinois.
"It's a statute that has been applied for 37 years," Assistant Attorney General Mary Welsch said in court arguments yesterday.
The organization and its leader, Matt Hale, maintain that the World Church is not a charity and never had any obligation to register. Hale argues that the state law governing charities is so vague it must be ruled unconstitutional.
"The penalties for non-compliance - purely for guessing wrong about what the statute means and failing to register - are severe," Hale's attorney Glenn Greenwald said yesterday.
A county judge backed Hale and declared the law unconstitutional in February 2000.
"There is really no doubt but that Ryan brought this silly lawsuit against us in an effort to further his political career," Hale said in a statement.
Ryan sued the group in 1999, just days after a former member, Benjamin Smith, went on a shooting spree. Smith killed two people and wounded nine people - all minorities - before killing himself.
Hale has called Smith a "friend and co-religionist."
Ryan rejects the argument that the charity law is too vague. He says it has stood for 37 years and survived scrutiny by other courts.
Hale says the law does not spell out what constitutes a charity, giving the attorney general arbitrary power to decide what groups must register.
Hale contends that if the church can be punished for not registering as a charity, so could any group. His legal briefs argue his organization clearly is not a charity, but rather "an avowedly racist and virulently anti-Semitic group."
