I don't believe for a second that the antifa pulled a permit. The news media are bad, but they're not so bad as to miss that, particularly since it would advance their preferred narrative . We know who pulled the UtR permit -- a guy called Kessler -- and if the antifas had pulled a permit we'd know who did that too. From the UtR-friendly side, if nowhere else.

People are not allowed to peaceably assemble wherever they want -- e.g., not on a freeway -- but the authorities are not permitted by the Constitution to restrict them to, say, out of the way places. That's what the court case about the UtR permit was about. The City of Charlottesville wanted to issue a permit for an out-of-city park, the court ordered that they be allowed to hold their rally in the park with the statue... and the city found another way to thwart the rally