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Charlottesville: In filing, U.S. attorney rejects First Amendment claims in rally rioting case
Source: The Daily Progress
In filing, U.S. attorney rejects First Amendment claims in rally rioting case
By Tyler Hammel 23 hrs ago
2 min to read
Two California men indicted on federal riot charges in the 2017 Unite the Right rally are not protected by the First Amendment, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia argued in a recent court filing.
Four members of the white supremacist Rise Against Movement — Benjamin Drake Daley, Thomas Walter Gillen, Michael Paul Miselis and Cole Evan White — were indicted last November on one count of conspiracy to violate the federal riots act and one count of traveling from California to Charlottesville with the intent to “incite a riot, organize, promote, encourage, participate in, and carry on in a riot, to commit an act of violence in furtherance of a riot, or aid or abet any person inciting and participating in or carrying on in a riot.”
In February, an attorney on behalf of Daley filed a motion to dismiss the indictment for failure to state an offense, arguing Daley’s actions were protected by the Constitution. A few days later, an attorney representing Miselis made a similar claim.
The dismissal is warranted, Daley’s motion argues, because “... the First Amendment precludes the Anti-Riot Act from applying to disorder arising from a political demonstration, and because it impermissibly seeks to punish Mr. Daley for constitutionally-protected speech.”
-snip-
“This case is not about free speech or the right to assemble for political purposes. This case is about four individuals that coordinated, planned, and travelled across the United States to engage in violence leading up to and during the Unite the Right Rally on August 11-12, 2017, in Charlottesville, Virginia,” Cullen wrote. “In their motion, Defendants seek to cloak themselves in First Amendment principles in the hopes that framing their behavior as political in nature will somehow shield them from the consequences of their violent intentions and their violent actions. They cannot.”
-snip-
By Tyler Hammel 23 hrs ago
2 min to read
Two California men indicted on federal riot charges in the 2017 Unite the Right rally are not protected by the First Amendment, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia argued in a recent court filing.
Four members of the white supremacist Rise Against Movement — Benjamin Drake Daley, Thomas Walter Gillen, Michael Paul Miselis and Cole Evan White — were indicted last November on one count of conspiracy to violate the federal riots act and one count of traveling from California to Charlottesville with the intent to “incite a riot, organize, promote, encourage, participate in, and carry on in a riot, to commit an act of violence in furtherance of a riot, or aid or abet any person inciting and participating in or carrying on in a riot.”
In February, an attorney on behalf of Daley filed a motion to dismiss the indictment for failure to state an offense, arguing Daley’s actions were protected by the Constitution. A few days later, an attorney representing Miselis made a similar claim.
The dismissal is warranted, Daley’s motion argues, because “... the First Amendment precludes the Anti-Riot Act from applying to disorder arising from a political demonstration, and because it impermissibly seeks to punish Mr. Daley for constitutionally-protected speech.”
-snip-
“This case is not about free speech or the right to assemble for political purposes. This case is about four individuals that coordinated, planned, and travelled across the United States to engage in violence leading up to and during the Unite the Right Rally on August 11-12, 2017, in Charlottesville, Virginia,” Cullen wrote. “In their motion, Defendants seek to cloak themselves in First Amendment principles in the hopes that framing their behavior as political in nature will somehow shield them from the consequences of their violent intentions and their violent actions. They cannot.”
-snip-
Read more: https://www.dailyprogress.com/news/local/courts/in-filing-u-s-attorney-rejects-first-amendment-claims-in/article_dbc0d372-4dc6-11e9-9a41-7b33f88e918a.html
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