As white nationalists and counter-protesters clashed in Charlottesville on Saturday, 20-year old James Field allegedly got into his car and plowed through a crowded street, killing a 32-year old woman and injuring 19 others.

Fields was arrested Saturday and charged with second-degree murder. Lawmakers on both sides denounced the driver’s actions, with Republicans in Congress labeling the incident a “terror attack” and calling for a Department of Justice investigation into the violence. With the exception of the president, who condemned violence on “many sides”, the consensus was that a person should not be allowed to drive a car through a crowd, no matter the motive or intentions.

But not everyone agrees with that statement. State lawmakers in at least six GOP-controlled states have pushed for laws this year that would shield drivers who hit protesters. The bills are part of a wave of anti-protest proposals introduced since the rise of the Black Lives Matter and anti-Trump resistance movements.

Two Republican lawmakers in North Dakota started the trend in January when they introduced a bill that would protect motorists who hit pedestrians blocking traffic, as long as the consequences are unintentional. State Rep. Keith Kempenich (R) said he authored the legislation after his mother-in-law was swarmed on a roadway by people protesting the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline.


“A driver of a motor vehicle who negligently causes injury or death to an individual obstructing vehicular traffic on a public road, street, or highway may not be held liable for any damages,” the proposed law read.

The bill was rejected in a 41-50 vote in February, but not before it inspired similar legislation in other red states across the country.

In Tennessee, lawmakers proposed a measure to protect drivers from civil liability after a motorist ran into safety workers at a rally against President Trump’s travel ban in Nashville. Police said that five or six protesters ended up on top of an SUV before the driver, who was not arrested, left the scene. The bill failed in a House committee in March.

Then in late April, after Black Lives Matter activists blocked streets and highways to protest the police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott in Charlotte, the North Carolina House approved legislation in a 67-48 vote that would also shield drivers from charges if they hit protesters while exercising “due care.”