The Supreme Court rejected an appeal request by 2 convicted Charlottesville rioters
The Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal of two men convicted over their actions at a 2017 rally.
The men were convicted under the 1968 Anti-Riot Act over their actions in Charlottesville, Virginia.
A federal appeals court found part of the 1968 law unconstitutional but upheld their convictions.
The US Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear the appeal of two men who were convicted of attacking counterprotesters under federal anti-riot law during the deadly August 2017 "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Bloomberg Law reported that Michael Paul Miselis and Benjamin Drake Daley, who are associated with a white-supremacist organization, appealed their convictions and said the 1968 Anti-Riot Act used to convict them was unconstitutional because it infringed on their freedom of speech.
A federal appeals court decided last year that a portion of the law was unconstitutional, but it upheld their convictions, the report said. Politico reported that a three-judge appeals court panel in July found that the language in 1968 law that made it illegal to "encourage" or "promote" a riot was unconstitutional because it limited protected speech.
But the court left portions of the statute in place, namely the one allowing federal prosecutors to charge people over inciting or starting a riot, Politico reported.
Miselis and Daley, both of California, are associated with the Rise Above Movement, a militant white-supremacist group that trains its members in mixed martial arts, the Associated Press reported.
The men in 2019 pleaded guilty to conspiracy to riot in connection with multiple rallies, including the 2017 Charlottesville rally, the AP reported. The men said the violence they committed was not in self-defense, the report said.
Miselis was sentenced to more than two years in prison, and Daley received a sentence of more than three years in prison, the AP reported.
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