The ACLU will no longer automatically defend free speech for groups that use firearms during protests, according to a statement released Thursday by the civil liberties group.
This declaration from the ACLU comes days after the Charlottesville rally, reported The Wall Street Journal.
“It’s neither a blanket no or a blanket yes,” said Anthony Romero, the ACLU’s executive director, to The Wall Street Journal. “The events of Charlottesville require any judge, any police chief and any legal group to look at the facts of any white-supremacy protests with a much finer comb.”
“If a protest group insists, ‘No, we want to be able to carry loaded firearms,’ well, we don’t have to represent them. They can find someone else.”
Romero argued that the decision would coalesce with the organization’s 2015 policy to support “reasonable” firearm regulation.
The ACLU sued the D.C. metro system earlier in August for banning ads from PETA and Milo Yiannopoulos.
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