Religious and Racial Extremism in America

San Diego attorney Jim McElroy, presenting on Religious and Racial Extremism in America, is the recipient of many community service awards. He served on California’s Hate Crimes Commission and testified before legislative committees. He worked with the Southern Poverty Law Center and Morris Dees in trials that resulted in a $12.5 million judgment against Tom Metzger and the White Aryan Resistance, a $6.2 million judgment against Aryan Nations in Idaho, a $9 million judgment for Billy Ray Johnson in Kentucky,  and a $2.5 million judgment against the Imperial Klans of America in Kentucky.

McElroy has represented victims of hate crimes in San Diego as well, including Carlos Colbert, an African-American Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton who was beaten by a gang of white supremacists in Santee, California and who was awarded $9 million. He also obtained an $880,000 verdict against Jeff White and Operation Rescue for threatening and harassing doctors and patients at family planning clinics. He has represented one of the plaintiffs in the Mt. Soledad Cross case, a First Amendment religious preference case, for over 20 years.

McElroy has served on the boards of the Southern Poverty Law Center, the ACLU of San Diego, the non-profit Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, and the Burrito Boys (an organization of kids who feed the homeless in San Diego). His pro bono clients have included Planned Parenthood National, Planned Parenthood San Diego, United Negro College Fund, Anti-Defamation League, Color of Change, Southern Poverty Law Center, the plaintiffs in the Mt. Soledad cross case and many others.

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