days left to the 2024 election! Your ballot is your power, and when we show up, equality wins. Click here to visit our 2024 Voting Center!
by HRC Staff •
Robbie Kaplan discusses her lawsuit against the neo-Nazis and white supremacists responsible for the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville.
Post submitted by Brian McBride, former HRC Digital Strategist
Robbie Kaplan, a founding partner of Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP, took over HRC's Twitter to discuss 'Sines v. Kessler,' the lawsuit she filed against neo-Nazis and white supremacists responsible for terrorizing the people of Charlottesville one year ago.
1/Hi I’m @kaplanrobbie, founding partner of @KaplanHecker. I’m doing an #HRCTwitterTakeover to discuss “Sines v. Kessler”—the lawsuit we filed against the neo-Nazis & white supremacists responsible for terrorizing the people of Charlottesville a year ago. https://t.co/q0mfgktHtL pic.twitter.com/rUwybdl7EW
— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) August 10, 2018
2/ Our case filed against 24 planners of the "Unite the Right" rally isn’t about free speech. These bigots made a calculated and coordinated plan to harm countless people in downtown Charlottesville on August 11 and 12, 2017. - @kaplanrobbie @IntegrityforUSA #HRCTwitterTakeover
— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) August 10, 2018
3/ Our team is representing 10 counter-protesters who were directly impacted in the events of that horrifying weekend with the help of funding from @IntegrityforUSA. - @kaplanrobbie #HRCTwitterTakeover
— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) August 10, 2018
4/ One of the plaintiffs is Elizabeth Sines, a University of Virginia student who saw the car hit and kill Heather Heyer. - @kaplanrobbie @IntegrityforUSA #HRCTwitterTakeover https://t.co/USNULCd7Dd
— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) August 10, 2018
5/ Another plaintiff is Marcus Martin, who is shown in this Pulitzer Prize winning photo from August 12 & saved the life of his then fiancée (now wife) Marissa. Marcus & Marissa were married this spring. - @kaplanrobbie @IntegrityforUSA #HRCTwitterTakeover https://t.co/wd4JGfkv4A pic.twitter.com/TH4r3vwRlW
— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) August 10, 2018
6/ On July 9 of this year, the Court largely denied Defendants’ attempt to dismiss the case, finding that the conduct alleged in our complaint “lies close to the core of the coverage intended by Congress when it passed the Ku Klux Klan Act.” - @kaplanrobbie #HRCTwitterTakeover
— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) August 10, 2018
7/ White nationalists felt they helped to elect Trump and no longer needed to hide online. They engineered a march to ostensibly protest the removal of a confederate statue, but really to engage in racist violence. - @kaplanrobbie @IntegrityforUSA #HRCTwitterTakeover
— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) August 10, 2018
8/ Trump’s comments have only emboldened these white supremacists, anti-Semites, and racists to commit heinous acts of violence without retribution. But the planners of this coordinated attack were anything but “fine people.” - @kaplanrobbie @IntegrityforUSA #HRCTwitterTakeover
— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) August 10, 2018
9/ White supremacists, white nationalists, neo-Nazis and other members of the “alt-right” movement used an anonymous chat app called Discord to coordinate the deadly rally in Charlottesville. - @kaplanrobbie @IntegrityforUSA #HRCTwitterTakeover https://t.co/WqHEoDrv3e
— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) August 10, 2018
10/We served a subpoena on Discord, seeking to obtain the messages & account info of 30+ users who appeared to have participated in the rally. These messages will prove organizers conspired to commit acts of violence, intimidation & harassment. - @kaplanrobbie #HRCTwitterTakeover
— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) August 10, 2018
11/In a significant victory for our case, a federal magistrate judge ordered Discord to release these messages, including with the woman accused of helping plan the violence at the white supremacist rally.-@kaplanrobbie @IntegrityforUSA #HRCTwitterTakeover https://t.co/3NTYxjO6q6
— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) August 10, 2018
12/ The woman — identified as kristall.night on the app, a reference to Kristallnacht violence instigated by the Nazis in 1938 — made racist comments and advised using flagpoles as spears and clubs during the rally. - @kaplanrobbie @IntegrityforUSA #HRCTwitterTakeover
— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) August 10, 2018
13/ Our complaint includes white nationalists Richard Spencer, Jason Kessler & Matthew Heimbach who violated state/fed civil rights laws by creating a dangerous environment & inciting violence against people based on race, religion & ethnicity. - @kaplanrobbie #HRCTwitterTakeover
— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) August 10, 2018
14/ Make no mistake: The organizers of "Unite the Right" rally planned a violent march. What happened was no accident. The march didn’t “just happen” to turn violent — a crucial distinction we plan to prove in court. - @kaplanrobbie #HRCTwitterTakeover https://t.co/rSWDscM0Nl
— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) August 10, 2018
15/ One of the greatest achievements of my career was successfully arguing before the Supreme Court in “U.S. v. Windsor” that the Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional — winning for LGBT Americans like myself the right to marry. - @kaplanrobbie #HRCTwitterTakeover pic.twitter.com/36ZzWL6Urt
— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) August 10, 2018
16/To me — a lesbian and a Jew — Windsor was about the equal dignity of LGBT people. The Charlottesville case is also about equal dignity — it just involves the equal dignity of African-Americans, Jews, Muslims, and LGBT people. -@kaplanrobbie @IntegrityforUSA #HRCTwitterTakeover
— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) August 10, 2018
17/17 We at @KaplanHecker, as well as our clients, are so grateful to @IntegrityforUSA for funding the case. They are committed to holding our country’s leaders accountable when their actions threaten our democracy. -@kaplanrobbie #HRCTwitterTakeover https://t.co/QgCldbAnLJ
— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) August 10, 2018
Image: