U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Appeals Of 2 CA White Nationalists

Los Angeles CA

14 June, 2021

6:12 PM

Description

CALIFORNIA — Two Golden State residents, who took part in Charlottesville's 2017 deadly white nationalist rally, were denied the opportunity to have their appeals heard by the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday. The high court said it would not take the cases of Golden State residents Michael Miselis and Benjamin Daley, who both committed acts of violence in the rally as members of the Rise Above Movement. The Rise Above Movement, based in Southern California, expresses contempt for Muslims, Jews and immigrants. The movement, something of an alt-right fight club, has trained members in mixed martial arts, skills they have later put to use against anti-protesters at alt-right rallies. "They were essentially serial rioters," Thomas Cullen, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia, previously said, according to the Los Angeles Times. "This wasn't in our view the lawful exercise of 1st Amendment rights. These guys came to Charlottesville to commit violent acts." Both men pleaded guilty to federal rioting charges in connection with the violent rally in Charlottesville where white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups from across the nation conspired to initiate a riot. Miselis and Daley admitted they punched and kicked demonstrators who showed up to protest against white nationalists during the "Unite the Right" rally. Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old resident of nearby Fluvanna County, was killed when she was walking with fellow counterprotesters and was struck by a car driven by white nationalist James Fields in the downtown mall area of Charlottesville. Miselis and Daley were indicted in October 2018 on two charges: traveling to incite riots and conspiracy to riot. The two men had challenged their convictions by arguing the Anti-Riot Act, a law they pleaded guilty to violating, is overly broad under the First Amendment's free speech clause. A federal appeals court had ruled against them. A street near the downtown mall in Charlottesville has been named after Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old resident of nearby Fluvanna County who was killed on Aug. 12, 2017, when she was struck by a car driven by white nationalist James Fields. (Mark Hand/Patch) Daley, of Torrance, was sentenced to 37 months in prison. Miselis, of Lawndale, was sentenced to 27 months. Miselis was released from federal custody last September, while Daley was scheduled to be released in May of this year. The two men were hoping the Supreme Court would hear their appeal of the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. Daley, a member of the Rise Above Movement, owned a tree-trimming business in Southern California and had previously spent time in jail for illegally possessing a firearm. He was among the large group who marched through the University of Virginia campus carrying torches on the night of Aug. 11, 2017, HuffPost reported in 2018. They chanted "Jews will not replace us!" and attacked anti-racist protesters on the north side of the university's Rotunda. When Daley arrived in Charlottesville in August of 2017, he taped his fists like a mixed martial arts fighter before he embarked on his march through the campus alongside hundreds of white supremacists, the Los Angeles Times reported. Prosecutors said Daley was "chiefly responsible" for organizing RAM's presence at the Unite the Right rally, The Associated Press reported. Fellow RAM member Miselis was an aerospace engineer for defense contractor Northrop Grumman until July 2018, when he was fired from his job after his membership in RAM was exposed by ProPublica. Miselis can be seen in video footage from the Charlottesville rally shoving a Black counter-protester to the ground and punching him. When he was arrested by federal agents, they found ammunition for assault-style weapons, smoke bombs, flares and a wall hanging that read "88," which essentially means "Heil Hitler," Assistant U.S. Atty. David Ryan told the Los Angeles Times. Experts see connections between the white nationalist groups that participated in the Unite the Right rally Charlottesville in August 2017 and the assault on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump on Jan. 6. "We've seen a rising tide of attacks by far-right extremists in recent years," Seamus Hughes, deputy director of the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, told Frontline. "The threat is coming from a host of ideologies, from white supremacists to incels, to everything in between. Unfortunately, the attacks are becoming both more frequent and deadly." This story includes reporting from the Associated Press and Patch Editor Mark Hand.