The anti-immigrant group NumbersUSA and its executive director Roy Beck just can’t seem to steer clear of controversy.

The Center for New Community reports that on June 4 Beck will address an event organized by the Maryland-based Institute of the Constitution. In 2004 the civil rights organization Southern Poverty Law Center named Institute co-founder Michael Peroutka as a member of the League of the South, a racist organization that seeks to create its own nation in the American south.

Peroutka personally accepted a national endorsement from the League of the South as the Presidential nominee for the far right Constitution Party in 2004. Peroutka’s vice-presidential running mate was Chuck Baldwin who wrote that the pro-slavery Southern Confederacy was right and that he didn’t “believe that the leaders of the old Confederacy were racists.”

Peroutka also agreed to be a participant on Political Cesspool, a radio show which borrows its mission statement from the Council of Conservative Citizens, a group formed by leaders of white citizens’ council of the segregated south. Instead of denouncing the radio shows outright racism, Peroutka instead referred to Political Cesspool as “a great blessing for our cause.”

While Peroutka’s flirtation with racism should be cause enough for alarm, it is his religious views that are of concern as well. Embracing a religious philosophy so extreme that it was publicly condemned by leaders of America’s Christian Right, the Institute of the Constitution belief system argues that the United States should be run as a religious theocracy.

Known as Christian Reconstructionism this radical theology argues that the American public should be forced to live under “Old Testament” laws such as the stoning to death of gays and those condemned as adulterers. In short an American version of the Taliban.

Popularized by R.J. Rushdoony, Christian Reconstructionism teaches that civil law should be “derived from and limited by biblical law.” Chalcedon, an organization founded by Rushdoony, is prominently featured on the Institute of the Constitution website. In addition John Lofton, a monthly contributor to the Chalcedon Report, is the regular co-host of the Institute’s radio show American View.

Beck and NumbersUSA’s decision to speak to the Institute of the Constitution is merely another example of irresponsible behavior. From Beck’s speaking appearance in front of a white nationalist organization to allowing its supporters spew racist rhetoric without challenge, NumbersUSA seems to only regret its “mistakes” afterwards.

From the arrest of Beck’s “bodyguard” at a D.C. immigrant rights rally on the charge of assault to suddenly withdrawing as a sponsor of an upcoming Arizona anti-immigrant march in Arizona after controversy arose surrounding the organizers ties to racial extremism, the laundry list simply grows longer.

Roy Beck and his NumbersUSA have been working overtime trying to convince the American public that it is a responsible organization, free from bigotry. With his latest speaking engagement Beck proves once again that he is attracted to political extremism like a moth attracted to the flame. The only difference in the case of Beck is that in the end it’s the American public who gets burned.