The jurors imposed $500,000 in punitive damages against several defendants and $1 million against several organizations on the state conspiracy claim. However, they limited compensatory damages to plaintiffs on that claim to no more than $1 each.

The jury found that plaintiffs' lawyers had proven a claim of racial or religious violence under a Virginia law. The panel awarded $250,000 each in compensatory damages to two plaintiffs and $200,000 in punitive damages against several defendants.

The case represented the latest in a decades-old strategy of using civil lawsuits to hobble hate groups by attacking their finances.

The defendants represent a "who's who" of the extremist right. They include Richard Spencer, former leader of the white supremacist and nationalist movement called the "alt-right," Christopher Cantwell, a neo-Nazi podcaster who is serving a prison sentence for extortion, and white nationalist Jason Kessler, the rally's lead organizer.

The case focused on two days in August days four years ago when hundreds of white supremacists descended on Charlottesville. Clean-cut white men marched with lit tiki torches and chanted, "Jews will not replace us." Fights broke out between white supremacists and counter-protesters.

The verdict shows justice has been served. The best way to hurt violent white supremacist groups is to hit them where it really hurts, their wallet. Too bad the amount in the verdict was not larger.

Shalom

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