New Hampshire prosecutors appeal dismissal of complaints against white nationalists

The New Hampshire Department of Justice has asked a judge to reconsider the dismissal of trespassing complaints against white nationalists accused of displaying “Keep New England White” banners from a highway overpass.

The New Hampshire attorney general’s office had said the men were motivated by race and trespassed on public property when they displayed the banners in Portsmouth last July. They are members of a group known as NSC-131 or the Nationalist Social Club, which the Anti-Defamation League describes as a New England-based neo-Nazi group founded in 2019 that “espouses racism, antisemitism and intolerance.”

Rockingham County Judge David Ruoff dismissed the state’s case earlier this month, ruling that the government was relying on an overly broad interpretation of the law and infringing on the group’s free speech rights.

In the appeal filed Friday, state prosecutors argued the judge misapplied the law. They said while there is general right to access public roads, parks and sidewalks, “there is no unfettered right to affix and display signs on a highway overpass.”