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Ignorance of the law may not be a valid defense in most criminal prosecutions, but ignorance of a well-known hate group's ideology was Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall's defense of his guest-starring role at a white supremacist event sponsored by the Middle Tennessee chapter of (CCC). The CCC describes blacks as "genetically inferior " and opposes racial intermarriage and all non-white immigration.

The topic of Hall's talk, delivered last Nov. 22 at a buffet restaurant in Nashville, was his department's controversial round-ups of undocumented immigrants. Needless to say, they're a hit with the CCC.

"Under Hall's leadership, more than 4,000 illegal aliens have been removed from the streets of Davidson County, thus reducing crime," reported the Citizens Informer, the CCC's nationally distributed newsletter. "The meeting drew the largest attendance in 12 years, with many youth in attendance."

When the Intelligence Report broke the news in late January of Hall's appearance at the CCC meeting, the sheriff faced a firestorm of criticism from local human rights activists and elected officials, many of whom were already critical of his office's . That program, which empowers local deputies to make arrests for federal immigrant code violations, has provoked .

"At no time before, during, or after did I have any idea what views this organization supported," Hall explained in a Feb. 3 letter to Metro Council members. "Keep in mind, I was speaking about the Davidson County Sheriff's Office immigration program during this meeting — there was never any discussion of their [the CCC's] purpose or mission."

But the CCC's purpose and mission are there for anyone to see on its websites, which proclaims its opposition to "all efforts to mix the races of mankind," sells "White Pride Worldwide" T-shirts and links to various skinhead organizations. The Republican National Committee and the Conservative Political Action Committee, among many others, have publicly denounced the CCC as racist.

The week before Hall's appearance at the hate group event came to light, Nashville voters soundly defeated an English-only measure that would have limited all Nashville government communications, publications and meetings to English, with no exceptions for health or safety. The campaign in support of the measure received almost all of its support — $19,000 out of $20,000 in total donations — from the Arlington, Va.-based organization ProEnglish, which was founded by . Tanton is a retired Michigan ophthalmologist and nativist impresario who operates a racist publishing company and has written that to maintain American culture, "a European-American majority" is required.