EAST PEORIA, Ill. (AP) — In three years of law school, Matt Hale made decent grades, participated in student groups and played violin in two orchestras. He also helped revive a white supremacist group that advocates a racial holy war.

Hale graduated last May, passed the bar exam and was hired by an Illinois law firm. But he never got his law license, snubbed by a state committee that reviews the "character and fitness" of prospective attorneys.

The panel, comprised of two lawyers and a judge, cited his racist leanings.

Hale is "free ... to incite as much racial hatred as he desires and to attempt to carry out his life's mission of depriving those he dislikes of their legal rights," panel members wrote in their 2-1 opinion in December.

"But in our view he cannot do this as an officer of the court."

Miffed by the vote — all but 25 of more than 3,000 applicants last year were approved — Hale has appealed to a separate state committee that could overturn the decision.

"The idea that I can't be lawyer because of my views is ludicrous," he said, sitting in a home office where an Israeli flag serves as a doormat, swastika stickers decorate the walls and the flag of Hale's group, the World Church of the Creator, hangs from a window. He is 27.

Hale's effort to gain a law license has attracted some unlikely supporters, including the Anti-Defamation League and renowned attorney Alan Dershowitz, who said he may help in Hale's appeal.

"Character committees should not become thought police," Dershowitz said. "It's not the content of the thoughts I'm defending, it's the freedom of everybody to express their views and to become lawyers."

As a boy in East Peoria, Hale immersed himself in books about Nazis and formed a "Little Reich" group at school. In high school and at Bradley University he attended "white power" rallies and sent letters filled with racial slurs to newspapers.

He also had brushes with the law, including a citation for littering after trying to distribute racist newspapers to homes. He was elected head of the World Church of the Creator while attending Southern Illinois University law school.

The church, founded in 1973 in Florida, espouses a racial holy war against Jews and blacks. One group member is serving a life sentence for killing a black sailor in Florida in 1991.

The church, which foundered for a few years, has thrived under Hale's leadership, according to the ADL. Hale's claim of as many as 30,000 supporters could not be verified.

Illinois officials say the last case similar to Hale's was in the early 1950s, when a law student refused to take an anti-Communist loyalty oath.

The U.S. Supreme Court last considered a similar case in 1971, when two applicants for law licenses in other states would not reveal their political beliefs. The court ruled in their favor.

The ADL believes Hale shouldn't be denied a law license because of the "slippery slope" it creates, said Andrew Shoenthal, assistant director in the group's Chicago office.

For instance, Shoenthal asked, could a prospective lawyer who opposes abortion or supports school prayer be denied a license if a majority in his community held an opposite view?

The Illinois State Bar Association has yet to take a position on Hale's case, but spokesman Dave Anderson said the case "is a hot topic (among lawyers) right now, with spirited debate on both sides."

Hale, meanwhile, was fired by the law firm because he couldn't obtain the license. He lives with his parents in East Peoria, with an office in their home.

He is optimistic he'll get his license and plans to open a solo practice. He hopes to challenge affirmative action laws and the littering law for which he was cited.

"For me, the true test of character is whether a person says what they think, which is what I have always done," Hale said. "I believe I show more character than most attorneys in that I actually practice what I preach."

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