The American Civil Liberties Union, taking a tougher stance on armed
protests, will no longer defend hate groups seeking to march with firearms,
the group’s executive director said.

Following clashes over the weekend in Charlottesville, Va., the
civil-rights group also will screen clients more closely for the potential
of violence at their rallies, said Anthony Romero, who has been the ACLU’s
executive director since 2001.

The ACLU’s Virginia branch defended the right of white nationalists,
neo-Nazis and other groups under the banner “Unite the Right� to protest
the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a
Charlottesville park.