A federal district judge dismissed a First Amendment lawsuit against Charlottesville by a “Unite the Right” organizer who claimed the city shut down his event in 2017 after threats and violence. Jason Kessler had a permit to hold an assembly but was shut down on public safety grounds. Norman Moon ruled that it was not practical to expect police to single out violent protesters from others to allow the event to proceed. He also rejected the plaintiff’s argument that the police action was not view-point neutral. (Courthouse News Service, February 21, 2020, by Erika Williams)
“Moon said that while the defendants had a constitutional obligation to not restrict Kessler’s speech because of the threat or possibility of public hostility to the alt-right message, they had no constitutional obligation to prevent that public hostility.”(WFIR, February 22, 2020, by The Associated Press)