Tag: Ben Doherty

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Judge explains: Motions still to be ruled upon in Confederate statue lawsuit

Plaintiffs Frank Earnest, Jock Yellott, and Dickie Tayloe leave Charlottesville Circuit Court after the latest hearing in their lawsuit to keep Confederate statues in city parks. staff photos

Judge Rick Moore got one big issue out of the way in the two-years-long lawsuit against the city and City Council for its 2017 vote to remove statues of Confederate generals: The monuments of generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson are indeed war memorials under state code, which prohibits their removal.

In court May 1, he started off the status hearing by explaining his April 25 ruling, because of misunderstandings that he said had occurred.

“It was a critical decision, but it is not the end of the court case,” said Moore, who took the opportunity to note the two boxes of case files and how busy he is to explain why it has taken so long to get rulings on the motions that have been filed. “This is just one case. I’m just one judge. This is an important case, but not the only one I have.”

The lawsuit was filed by 13 plaintiffs, including the Monument Fund and the Sons of Confederate Veterans, who allege councilors Wes Bellamy, Bob Fenwick and Kristin Szakos unlawfully voted to remove a statue of Lee donated to the city by Paul Goodloe McIntire. The vote to remove Jackson was added to the suit after August 12, 2017, when councilors Mike Signer and Kathy Galvin joined the unanimous vote to oust the Confederates.

All of the councilors were in court except for Fenwick, as were a number of the plaintiffs, including Frank Earnest with the Sons of Confederate Veterans, who has traveled from Virginia Beach for hearings over the past two years, Monument Fund organizer Jock Yellott, and Dickie Tayloe, whose First Family of Virginia was once one of the largest slave owners in the state.

Moore did issue a ruling, and denied a plaintiffs’ motion to keep the defense from using equal protection under the 14th Amendment as part of its case. That argument says because the Civil War was fought primarily over slavery, the statues are part of an effort to intimidate African Americans.

“Equal protection being constitutional, it would be hard for me to say you’re not going to argue that,” he said. “I’m not in a position to say the defendants cannot prevail on that.”

Yet to be ruled upon is a motion to determine whether councilors had statutory immunity when they voted to remove the statues, and Moore said that’s next on his list.

Plaintiffs attorney Braxton Puryear complained that councilors had not provided depositions or discovery that would help him determine whether they acted with gross negligence when they voted to remove the statues, a key in determining immunity.

Legal powerhouse Jones Day is representing pro bono all of the councilors except Fenwick, and attorney Esha Mankoti said that’s why the issue needs to be decided immediately, because if councilors have immunity, their emails would be protected as well.

“That argument has the flavor of a circular argument.” said Moore, who said he sympathized with the plaintiffs, who have been asking for discovery for two years. “You don’t postpone the depositions,” he said.

He said the emails they sent each other the night before the vote could be the “smoking gun” if councilors said, “We can do what we want.”

Still, the judge wasn’t ready to say council’s actions amounted to gross negligence.

Moore also needs to decide on the city’s argument that a 1997 law that prohibited the removal of war memorials is not retroactive, as well as what issues can go before the jury in the September trial.

Outside the courthouse, plaintiff Buddy Weber felt “very good” about the recent ruling that the statues are war memorials.

However, activist Ben Doherty described Moore’s ruling as buying into the Lost Cause narrative because it neutralizes what is “overt white supremacy.”

Attorney Janice Redinger, who is not involved in the case, says, “I think there’s a chilling effect that these legislators may be personally liable for passing an ordinance. Look at all the unconstitutional laws passed by the General Assembly.”

 

 

 

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Anti-racists instruct

SURJ members serenade diners at Miller’s in 2017 with chants like “Nazi go home.” Eze Amos

During the week leading up to the August 11 and 12 anniversary, local anti-racist groups hosted a series of events, including panels on their use of in-your-face tactics and why they believe the First Amendment should not apply to white supremacists.

Protesters up the ante

UVA religious studies professor Jalane Schmidt opened the August 7 Black Lives Matter event with a terse request: “For everyone’s safety, we’ll ask all police to leave.”

The five-person “Why We Protest” panel discussion took a decidedly brasher tone than previous community events, showcasing the confrontational tactics some Charlottesville activists have embraced.

In the packed Jefferson School African American Heritage Center auditorium, Showing Up for Racial Justice activist Grace Aheron moderated the panel, which included Congregate Charlottesville organizer Brittany “Smash” Caine-Conley, SURJ activist Anna, UVA English professor Lisa Woolfork and UVA Students United activist Ibby Han. In keeping with the SURJ ethos, Aheron forbade audience members from livestreaming the event. “If you want the information, you have to come, or take notes and tell everyone,” she said.

Panelists prefaced the discussion by giving their preferred pronouns and tracing their paths to activism. Anna and Han got their start in campus organizations, while Woolfork was driven to protest out of a desire for “her children to inherit a world better than the one I have.” For Caine-Conley, experiencing police violence during a prayer circle at Standing Rock was the tipping point.

The first question addressed a common objection to protests against white supremacy: Why don’t you just ignore them? “Apathy is not a strategy,” said Woolfork, to a roaring applause. Other panelists argued that public disruption has been an indispensable tool for thwarting the alt-right.

Some on the panel adopted a more elastic definition of protest to accommodate mental and physical handicaps. Anna, a disabled activist, said, “Feeding the homeless is an act of protest to food injustice.”

Panelists endorsed controversial tactics for combating white supremacy, such as denying public figures they associate with fascism a platform and accosting them when they go out in public, an approach that has been used against several White House officials—and Jason Kessler.

Woolfork discouraged arguing with bigots, though other panelists adjusted this stance when someone asked what to do if the bigot is a family member. Struggling through tears, an audience member recalled contentious disputes with her parents, who voted for Donald Trump.

Caine-Conley said as a queer woman with family members who do not accept her, she has found it helpful to tell them stories about her activism. “It causes cognitive dissonance…because I am involved,” she said.

Panelists reiterated the need people to participate in demonstrations, citing the successful push to ban Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler from UVA. “The arc of justice doesn’t bend naturally,” Han said, “it bends when people push on it.”

Many activists agreed that the biggest threat for the August 12 weekend didn’t come from neo-Nazis. At the #ResilientCville town hall a few weeks ago, several audience members expressed concerns about police overcompensating to make up for last year’s failures. Woolfork echoed these concerns, warning that, if this is the case, “black people will bear the brunt.”—Jonathan Haynes

Free speech victims

Showing Up for Racial Justice sponsored an August 8 lawyers’ panel on free speech and anti-racist work—and how “false notions” about the former “hinder” the latter.

UVA law professor Anne Coughlin called the idea that there’s such a thing as legally protected free speech a “myth.” She said, “We regulate speech all the time.” Free speech gets thrown around as an absolute right, while “the protections are much narrower that people believe,” she said.

Legal Aid Justice Center and National Lawyers Guild attorney Kim Rolla questioned the idea that in an unfettered marketplace of free speech, “truth will shake out.”

Said Rolla, “Right now, the First Amendment is used to punish anti-racists and protect white supremacists.”

SURJ organizer Ben Doherty, who works at the UVA Law Library, elaborated on that theme: July 8, 2017, when “police gave full protection” to the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and tear-gassed anti-racist activists; a federal judge allowing Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler to hold his violent rally last year “under the guise of free speech;” August 11, 2017,  at UVA, when neo-Nazis and white supremacists carried torches through the Grounds of UVA and “formed a lynch mob” while “police were paralyzed.”

And he listed the UVA law school, which allowed Kessler to be there twice, while arresting an activist “for merely sitting in the office with him.”

Coughlin, who said she has colleagues who say student “snowflakes” are trying to silence free speech, called “completely false” the notion of a “presupposed golden age of free speech and the sharing of ideas freely” when women and African Americans were excluded from law schools.

“We have the power to change the meaning of what’s protected speech and what’s violence,” she said.

White supremacists are now characterizing themselves as victims and “a minority group that’s being silenced,” said Rolla. “To say white folks are victims is really dangerous.”

Trickier for the panelists was how to prevent hate speech from having First Amendment protections.

“I’m hesitant to give more tools to the government to restrict speech,” said Rolla.

“There’s no reason the KKK should be a legal organization in the United States,” said Doherty. “It’s a terrorist group.” He said the government outlawed the Black Panthers through FBI surveillance and infiltration.

Attorney Lloyd Snook was in the audience, and he says that infiltrating the Black Panthers was not the same as passing a law, “Two of the three panelists don’t know their First Amendment history very well.”

The decisions that came out of the Warren U.S. Supreme Court were to protect civil rights organizers, union organizers and Communists, he says. “Later on the KKK and Nazis latched on to that.”

Moderator Lisa Woolfork with free-speech panelists Ben Doherty, Anne Coughlin, and Kim Rolla. staff photo

How Kessler could get a permit for the Unite the Right rally last year was a question from the audience.

In federal court, the basis the city gave for moving the rally was the number of people anticipated for then-Emancipation Park, said Rolla.

Rolla pointed out that then-mayor Mike Signer told ProPublica on Frontline’s “Documenting Hate: Charlottesville” that the city had no knowledge there would be any violence. Rolla called that “astounding” and said, “People stood in front of City Council” with information of the violent intentions of rally-goers, and there should have been prior restraint based on the threat of violence.—Lisa Provence

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Kessler alert: UVA law library hits the books in search of ban

Jason Kessler's visits to the UVA law library have not been welcomed. Now non-students are not allowed until exams are over. Contributed photo

By Natalie Jacobsen

A tale of two incidents at the University of Virginia School of Law library has prompted the administration to restrict access to students-only for the exam period, which ends May 11.

On April 18, Charlottesville’s embattled whites-righter, Jason Kessler, entered the school’s library and plopped down in a central location to do what the other students had been trying to do: study.

But unlike for the students that roam the hallways daily, his legal research did not turn into an all-nighter among the books. His presence was quickly noticed, with students and professors taking personal action. A 3L—third-year law student—says Kessler was researching a way to petition his permit denial.

One librarian, Ben Doherty, who is an active member of Showing Up for Racial Justice, excused himself from the library when Kessler arrived. Doherty, who has been a target in Kessler’s tweets, declined to comment at this time.

Says a 2L, who asked not to be named, “A [group] of students and Professor [Anne] Coughlin were telling him to leave. Video was taken by him and by those who went to silently protest.” The silent protest came in the form of signs with messages such as “Blood on your hands” quickly printed off and held up “as he pretended to read,” says the 2L. Over the course of an hour and a half, the group fluctuated between five and 15 law school people.

Alicia Penn, who left the school when she heard Kessler was on grounds, says, “some allies really stepped up to the plate and put their bodies on the line.”

Two police arrived to observe. Eventually, Kessler responded to the presence of a handful of students and became loud, blasting racist and sexist statements as he stormed through the hallway and calling a friend to pick him up “because he didn’t trust the police, in his own words,” says the 2L. “He looked pissed off, even though the police and students were not forcing him out.”

No email alerts were sent to the student body while Kessler was on grounds.

Professor Coughlin has been leading the charge to dismiss Kessler entirely from the law school property. The university previously rejected the law school administration’s request for an outright ban, despite allowing homeless and drunk persons to be barred from accessing the school in the past. The library is open to the public during business hours.

Kessler is the organizer of the infamous Unite the Right rally and one of the alleged leaders who directed hundreds of white supremacists to carry tiki torches across UVA Grounds and Lawn last summer.

An impromptu forum to discuss the incident drew in students and faculty, who called for action. Dean Risa Goluboff seemed overwhelmed with emotion and said she “let down her students,” according to Penn. No immediate action was taken as far as students were concerned, and the issue went unresolved publicly for several days.

UVA law spokesperson Mary Wood, who initially did not return phone calls, now says the law school has been actively working with President Teresa Sullivan, the university counsel’s office and the police since April 18.

“I’m really disheartened by the university’s response,” says another 2L, who asked that he not be named because of threats from the alt-right. “The administration and police department should issue a no-trespass order against Kessler. There’s a record built that establishes he’s a danger to our community. They have all the information they need and they’ve done nothing while students at the law school have been dealing with this for two weeks right before finals. As a student of color, I expect more from UVA.”

Yesterday Kessler made a return to the law school, but this visit was cut much shorter. He was given a space in a staff office to continue his legal research, according to student sources, when a community activist entered the room. A law school administrator asked Eric Martin to leave and warned him he’d be arrested if he refused. When Martin did not go, two police officers on hand arrested him for trespassing, according video of the encounter.

Wood says Kessler was not given an office and he was being assisted by a law librarian in the librarian’s office.

In a video, Martin says, “If you want to arrest me and not Jason Kessler sitting right there, then go ahead.”

Martin came to grounds after Solidarity Cville tweeted about Kessler’s reappearance at the law school.

This time, Kessler approached Doherty near the circulation desk, and their voices escalated as Doherty stepped in to ask Kessler to leave, according to witnesses. A group of students gathered, brandishing their recording devices, and watched silently through their screens. Police soon escorted Kessler out peacefully.

The law school sent out an email alert and a follow-up once “the disturbance [had] been resolved.” Dean Goluboff wrote in the email, “Since last week, we have been working toward limiting access…and the plan was for the new policy to go into effect tomorrow morning. Given today’s events, I have decided to implement that policy immediately.”

Some students were not satisfied last week—nor this week—with the school’s response.

Says second-year Elizabeth Sines, who is currently one of a dozen plaintiffs suing Kessler for injury at the August 12 rally, “At this point, there are a group of us students trying to determine how best to respond if he comes here again, because we realize we can’t rely on the university to do so.”

Goluboff’s email reads, “These two trying events have caused much distress. I share in that distress, and I am devoting my full attention to these matters.”

Correction: The date of Kessler’s first visit was April 18, not April 20.

Updated 3:13pm with additional information from UVA law spokesperson Mary Wood.

Updated 4:38 to remove the name of a person incorrectly identified.