LISTEN: Landmark Marriage Equality Lawyer Suing White Supremacists

Robert Kaplan, right, sitting with Edie Windsor. Image by Getty

By Ari Feldman October 17, 2017

The lawyer who argued the landmark Supreme Court case that made gay marriage legal in the U.S. is going after the organizers of Charlottesville’s “Unite the Right” rally.

In a Washington Post podcast, Robert Kaplan explained the origins and nature of her court case against 26 organizers of the August rally, which led to the death of Heather Hayer.

“If Nazis or KKK or white supremacists just want to stand peacefully on a street corner and hold up a sign saying they hate Jews or they hate black people … that is protected speech. I have no issue with that,” Kaplan told Jonathan Capehart. “But that’s not what happened here.”

Kaplan’s suit draws on testimony from dozens of witness to the rally. Kaplan said she has extensive records of the planning process that implicate the main organizers of the event, who she says were hoping and expecting violence.

“We have the most extensive record I’ve ever seen in a… conspiracy case, that these defendants engaged in communications with one another… We have enormous amounts of detail about what they said, and what they did to essentially make this happen,” Kaplan said.

“We are not suing them because they hate Jews or they hate blacks or they hate foreigners. That’s not the case,” Kaplan added. “It’s not about defamation. It’s about people being hurt.”

Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman.

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. He covers Jewish religious organizations, synagogue life, anti-Semitism and the Orthodox world. If you have any tips, you can email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @aefeldman.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO