Beating a Dead Horse

The World Church of the Creator (WCOTC), a Nazi-inspired sect once led by the media-savvy law student Matt Hale, has been ordered to pay $450,000 in legal fees to another religious group. That group had sued the WCOTC, claiming that they had infringed on their similar, copyrighted name. The money may be difficult to collect, as the WCOTC has for all intents and purposes ceased to exist as an organization. In this case, it seems that the purpose of the lawsuit was not just to destroy the targeted organization, but also to derail any effort to restart it. This of course raises the ethical and legal questions surrounding the use of civil suits to bankrupt politically unpopular groups, but I think I’ll save that issue for another column.