Dear John,

Organizers of the 2017 Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally will owe more than $25 million in punitive damages after today’s verdict in one of the most important cases against extremists in modern history.

The outcome of this civil lawsuit exposed the depths of hate that motivated the defendants and impaired their ability to take further action. We thank our partners at Integrity First for America, who represented the plaintiffs in this lawsuit, for expertly and persistently pursuing justice, sending an important message to extremists everywhere that they will be held accountable for their behavior.

ADL supported this work as part of its long history of fighting antisemitism, bigotry, hate and bias. As part of this partnership with Integrity First for America, we helped to support critical case needs including security and evidence collection. Additionally, we joined their board and the experts in our Center on Extremism offered their consulting services.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the rally organizers included a Christian minister, students at the University of Virginia, and other local community members injured August 11 and 12, 2017 during the “Unite the Right” violence. The defendants included two dozen white supremacists and neo-Nazis. The case leveraged the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and other statutes, using the justice system to take on the leaders of America’s white supremacist movement.

ADL’s Center on Extremism has identified many of the individuals and groups behind the original Charlottesville rally, and documented how the event was part of a four-year resurgence in white supremacist activity that has included rampant dissemination of hate propaganda and a broader series of violent attacks occurring since.

This verdict makes clear that those who organize and spread deadly hate must be held responsible, and that ADL will keep up the Good Fight to make that happen.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Greenblatt

CEO and National Director

ADL