A defamation lawsuit against a University of Virginia professor who spoke out through the news media about local issues involving the history of slavery in Charlottesville and their relationship to Confederate monuments is frivolous and should be dismissed, said the ACLU of Virginia.

The ACLU of Virginia, in collaboration with global law firm White & Case LLP, today filed a federal class-action lawsuit against the Virginia Department of Corrections (VDOC) seeking to end the practice of solitary confinement in two of its most notorious prisons.