Fourth Circuit Restores Millions of Dollars in Punitive Damages Against Charlottesville Neo-Nazis and White Supremacists

Yesterday, the Fourth Circuit upheld a federal jury’s multimillion-dollar verdict in the landmark civil rights litigation against the white supremacist and neo-Nazi individuals and organizations who planned and orchestrated the “Unite the Right” violence in Charlottesville in August 2017. The Fourth Circuit also held that the district court erred in capping the jury’s total award of punitive damages at $350,000, holding instead (as a matter of first impression) that the court should have applied Virginia’s punitive damages cap to each of the numerous plaintiffs in the case. 

Yesterday’s decision will restore millions of dollars in damages from the jury’s verdict, ensuring that the “Unite the Right” defendants are held accountable for their racist and antisemitic violence. Moreover, the decision sets a precedent that allows federal plaintiffs who sue jointly in Virginia to recover more in punitive damages for egregious misconduct.

Read the decision here.