Story highlights The Charlottesville City Council voted Thursday morning to join a lawsuit

The new lawsuit will be filed against self-described militia groups

(CNN) Two months after the deadly white supremacist rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia, the city and a group of local business owners headed to court Thursday to file a novel lawsuit to prevent what they call "private militia" groups from wreaking havoc on the town once again.

Using state laws prohibiting "unlawful paramilitary activity" and private citizens from falsely posing as law enforcement, the new lawsuit was filed against more than more than 20 individuals, self-described militia groups, and white nationalist organizations, including several leaders of the "Unite the Right" rally back in August.

Charlottesville and city officials file a lawsuit Thursday to prevent 'private militia' groups.

"Whatever their stated intentions, these groups terrified local residents and caused attendees to mistake them for authorized military personnel," wrote attorneys for the city in the complaint. "It was in Charlottesville that an online clique of ethno-statists became a movement with real destructive force -- that they began 'stepping off the internet in a big way.'"

The Charlottesville City Council voted in open session Thursday morning to join the suit, now alongside dozens of local businesses and neighborhood associations. The suit could potentially serve as a template for future legal action as other local officials struggle to contain private militia groups rallying in other cities across the country.

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