Joshua Geltzer, executive director, left, and Mary McCord, senior litigator from practice, right, of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection.
Photo: Brent Futrell/Georgetown Law

A lawsuit filed in Virginia state court Thursday looks to block white nationalists from returning to the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia, by claiming they acted as private militias in violation of the state constitution during a rally that turned deadly in August.

It's one of the ways Mary McCord and Josh Geltzer, lawyers at Georgetown Law's Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, hope to prevent future violent events like what happened in Charlottesville, which left one woman dead and many others injured. McCord and Geltzer, along with a team from Georgetown and private practice, filed the lawsuit in the Charlottesville Circuit Court on behalf of several businesses and organizations.

The National Law Journal caught up with the attorneys to learn more about the legal theory and their plans to use similar statutes in the future.