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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA 19th-Century Law Dismantled The KKK. Now It Could Bring Down A New Generation Of Extremists.
I am really looking forward to following this lawsuit. It will set the tone for the 4 lawsuits against TFG filed against TFG under the KKK act.
Link to tweet
The case is a sweeping attempt to use the KKK Act of 1871 to dismantle this amorphous online world and implicate its members in the August 2017 violence at the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Its a civil case, seeking damages for not only physical violence and violations of civil rights, but the emotional violence of online and physical harassment that began before the rally and has continued long after.
The case has nine plaintiffs, all residents of Charlottesville who counterprotested at the rally. Elizabeth Sines, whose name the case carries, joined the suit because of the emotional trauma she suffered as a witness to the violence. Others, such as Marcus Martin, Natalie Romero and Chelsea Alvarado, were severely injured. Plaintiff Hanna Pearce joined because a picture of her and her son was posted on the neo-Nazi news site The Daily Stormer.
There are 24 defendants. Some of them are names you probably know already, like Richard Spencer, president of the white nationalist conspiracy group National Policy Institute, or Charlottesvilles hometown racist, Jason Kessler. Others you may not know by name, but may have heard of their groups: Identity Evropa, League of the South, the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. All are accused of organizing a motley collection of white supremacists into a violent mob....
After lying dormant for several years, the KKK Act is currently being used to sue conspirators in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, and in December 2020, the NAACP filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump and the Republican Party under the act, alleging that they conspired to interfere with the voting rights of Black Americans in Michigan.
The case has nine plaintiffs, all residents of Charlottesville who counterprotested at the rally. Elizabeth Sines, whose name the case carries, joined the suit because of the emotional trauma she suffered as a witness to the violence. Others, such as Marcus Martin, Natalie Romero and Chelsea Alvarado, were severely injured. Plaintiff Hanna Pearce joined because a picture of her and her son was posted on the neo-Nazi news site The Daily Stormer.
There are 24 defendants. Some of them are names you probably know already, like Richard Spencer, president of the white nationalist conspiracy group National Policy Institute, or Charlottesvilles hometown racist, Jason Kessler. Others you may not know by name, but may have heard of their groups: Identity Evropa, League of the South, the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. All are accused of organizing a motley collection of white supremacists into a violent mob....
After lying dormant for several years, the KKK Act is currently being used to sue conspirators in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, and in December 2020, the NAACP filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump and the Republican Party under the act, alleging that they conspired to interfere with the voting rights of Black Americans in Michigan.
As a member of the bar, I am so proud of the lawyers who brought this case. They are both great examples of my faith and great members of the Bar. They has spent $40 million in donated time pursing this case.
This will be fun to watch and rulings in this case will be used in the four KKK cases pending agianst TFG.
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A 19th-Century Law Dismantled The KKK. Now It Could Bring Down A New Generation Of Extremists. (Original Post)
LetMyPeopleVote
Oct 2021
OP
White supremacists are returning to Charlottesville. But this time, they're on trial.
LetMyPeopleVote
Oct 2021
#5
This is how you quash the christofascists' agenda, you sue their terrorist orgs into....
Thomas Hurt
Oct 2021
#8
'Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch': Maddow mocks Nazis bankrupted by legal fees
LetMyPeopleVote
Oct 2021
#12
Jury has been selected in the civil trial against the organizers of the 'Unite the Right' rally
LetMyPeopleVote
Oct 2021
#13
malaise
(267,800 posts)1. Get thee to the greatest page
RFN!
alwaysinasnit
(5,037 posts)2. k&r for visibility
dchill
(38,320 posts)3. K&R.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)4. Hope damages are huuuuuggge.
LetMyPeopleVote
(143,999 posts)5. White supremacists are returning to Charlottesville. But this time, they're on trial.
This will be a fun trial to follow
Link to tweet
Because only a handful of participants faced criminal charges, the plaintiffs lawyers say, the civil suit is one way to correct what they call a lack of accountability that paved the way for other extremist violence, including the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The racist, bigoted imagery on display in Charlottesville in August 2017 a shock to much of the nation at the time is now regularly spotted at right-wing gatherings throughout the country.
One message of this case is that these events like Charlottesville, like Jan. 6 theyre not these spontaneous, flukish events that just happen, said Karen Dunn, a prominent trial lawyer serving as co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs. There is an enormous undercurrent of planning, of intent and of purposefulness that we all need to wake up to.
Suing two dozen white supremacists and hate groups means that virtually everything about the trial is unusual. The judge has ordered litigants not to discuss the extraordinary security backdrop to the trial; personal security is the top expense for the plaintiffs. Potential jurors will be asked their opinions on, for example, Black Lives Matter and antisemitism. Court exhibits will include vile messages that come from more than 5 terabytes of evidence. To make their case, the plaintiffs attorneys are dusting off a Reconstruction-era statute that was designed to protect newly emancipated Black people from the Ku Klux Klan.,,,,
The plaintiffs in this lawsuit represent the kind of American diversity that the defendants reject. They are of different religions, races and ethnicities, court documents show. They include an ordained minister, a Colombian American undergraduate at the University of Virginia, an African American landscaper, and a multiracial paralegal who was a co-worker and friend of Heyers.
One message of this case is that these events like Charlottesville, like Jan. 6 theyre not these spontaneous, flukish events that just happen, said Karen Dunn, a prominent trial lawyer serving as co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs. There is an enormous undercurrent of planning, of intent and of purposefulness that we all need to wake up to.
Suing two dozen white supremacists and hate groups means that virtually everything about the trial is unusual. The judge has ordered litigants not to discuss the extraordinary security backdrop to the trial; personal security is the top expense for the plaintiffs. Potential jurors will be asked their opinions on, for example, Black Lives Matter and antisemitism. Court exhibits will include vile messages that come from more than 5 terabytes of evidence. To make their case, the plaintiffs attorneys are dusting off a Reconstruction-era statute that was designed to protect newly emancipated Black people from the Ku Klux Klan.,,,,
The plaintiffs in this lawsuit represent the kind of American diversity that the defendants reject. They are of different religions, races and ethnicities, court documents show. They include an ordained minister, a Colombian American undergraduate at the University of Virginia, an African American landscaper, and a multiracial paralegal who was a co-worker and friend of Heyers.
Several default judgments have been issued in this case and a number of the defendants are defending themselves. One of the defendant is the crying Nazi who has personally attacked in his briefs one of the Jewish attorneys representing the plaintiffs.
This case will be helpful for the 4 cases pending against TFG under the KKK act
brer cat
(24,401 posts)6. Thanks for posting this, LMPV.
K&R
LetMyPeopleVote
(143,999 posts)7. Prof. Tribe is pleased with the attorneys handling this case
Thomas Hurt
(13,903 posts)9. Jewish plaintiffs' attorneys...that will infuriate the fascists.
LetMyPeopleVote
(143,999 posts)10. As a Jewish member of the bar, this makes me smile
Thomas Hurt
(13,903 posts)8. This is how you quash the christofascists' agenda, you sue their terrorist orgs into....
defunctness. Take their money and take most of their voice.
monkeyman1
(5,109 posts)11. money & truck's being on the auction block's !
LetMyPeopleVote
(143,999 posts)12. 'Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch': Maddow mocks Nazis bankrupted by legal fees
Link to tweet
"You say he's representing himself?" asked Maddow. "Serving as his own lawyer? You don't say. Whatever else has happened in your life today, I bequeath you this, little warm fuzziness, the Nazis are representing themselves in court, acting as their own lawyers. That always works out great. Good for them. Couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch."
She noted that another Charlottesville person is being forced to find other legal options after his lawyers quit because he started spewing anti-Semitic threats against one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs.
Other neo-Nazis involved in different cases have been able to hold onto their lawyer, Maddow said, because the lawyer "agrees with them because he himself wants to 'oppose Jewish influence in society.'"
She noted that another Charlottesville person is being forced to find other legal options after his lawyers quit because he started spewing anti-Semitic threats against one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs.
Other neo-Nazis involved in different cases have been able to hold onto their lawyer, Maddow said, because the lawyer "agrees with them because he himself wants to 'oppose Jewish influence in society.'"
LetMyPeopleVote
(143,999 posts)13. Jury has been selected in the civil trial against the organizers of the 'Unite the Right' rally
This trial will be fun to watch
Link to tweet
A jury has been selected in the civil trial that will decide if organizers behind the August 2017, "Unite the Right" rally will be held responsible for the violence that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The plaintiffs, who include town residents and counterprotesters injured in two days of clashes, contend the organizers of the rally engaged in a conspiracy. The 9 individuals are seeking "compensatory and statutory" damages for physical and emotional injuries they suffered.
The twelve jurors were selected after being grilled with questions over three days.
The plaintiffs, who include town residents and counterprotesters injured in two days of clashes, contend the organizers of the rally engaged in a conspiracy. The 9 individuals are seeking "compensatory and statutory" damages for physical and emotional injuries they suffered.
The twelve jurors were selected after being grilled with questions over three days.