CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — Organizers of last year’s deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, are suing the city and police officials over what they say were violations of their constitutional rights.
The Daily Progress reports the Unite the Right rally organizers filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday saying authorities prevented them from exercising their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
The plaintiffs are Jason Kessler, white nationalist group Identity Evropa and neo-Nazi groups National Socialist Movement and Traditionalist Worker’s Party. The lawsuit says by issuing orders not to engage crowds, authorities allowed a “heckler’s veto,” in effect suppressing speech by the possibility of violent reactions.
Violent clashes erupted at the rally, and a counterprotester was killed when a car rammed a crowd.
Kessler filed a similar lawsuit in March that was voluntarily dismissed in August.
