U.S. Appeals Court Says Klan’s Manhattan Rally Can Be Stopped

A federal appeals court stayed a lower court’s order and ruled Friday that New York City can stop a Ku Klux Klan rally today if members insist on wearing masks.

A district court had told the city to allow the Butler, Ind.-based Church of the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan to march with masks and hoods. But a three-member panel of the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the city’s initial prohibition can stand because the city is enforcing a law, not discriminating against the group’s message.

The Klan group, which argued that members are afraid of reprisals if they march unmasked, planned to hold the “white pride” rally this afternoon in front of a state courthouse in lower Manhattan. It was unclear whether the demonstration would go on.

Norman Siegel, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the Klan group, said he would have to discuss the ruling with his clients before deciding whether to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene.

City officials had agreed to allow the rally but only if members went without their traditional hoods. They cited an 1845 law that bars people from congregating in masks or disguises except for authorized events, such as masquerades.

Siegel argued that individuals do have a free speech right to wear masks, particularly a “pariah organization like the Klan” that fears retaliation.