Coalition to March on the DNC to hold press conference and announce federal lawsuit against city of Chicago for First Amendment violations

The Coalition to March on the Democratic National Convention (DNC) will hold a press conference Friday, March 22nd, to announce a federal lawsuit that will be filed the same day on behalf of three organizations: Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR), Anti-War Committee (AWC)-Chicago, and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)-UIC. 

WHEN: Friday, March 22, 2024, at 11 AM

WHERE: Federal Plaza, 230 S. Dearborn Street, downtown Chicago

SPEAKERS: Chris Williams, Attorney; Frank Chapman, Field Organizer, CAARPR; Zhenya Polozova, Co-Chair, AWC-Chicago; Hatem Abudayyeh, USPCN National Chair

CAARPR, AWC-Chicago, and SDS all recently applied for permits to march on August 19th and August 22nd, within sight and sound of the DNC. The Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) denied these permits. The organizations appealed, but the Department of Administrative Hearings upheld the denials on March 20.

“The City’s ordinance at issue is an unconstitutional restriction on political speech on its face and in how it is being applied,” said Chris Williams of Workers’ Law Office, who is representing the organizations applying for the permits. “And these are not just theoretical threats to First Amendment speech. The City has threatened to seek potentially thousands of dollars in fines and even jail time if organizations even seek a permit that the City interprets as duplicative under the Ordinance, creating a serious chilling effect discouraging political speech at the DNC.”

The lawsuit alleges that the Chicago Ordinance at issue is an unconstitutional restriction on the First Amendment rights of the Plaintiff organizations and their members, and also that the City’s denial of march permits and proffered alternate route three miles from the DNC, far away from and out of sight from the delegates attending, was not a reasonable alternative.

Kobi Guillory, spokesperson for the Coalition to March on the DNC and co-chair of CAARPR, said, “As the U.S. backed Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza continues unabated – with over 32,000 killed, almost all by U.S. bombs and missiles – we must march to where the delegates at the DNC can hear us and see us. This is the party in power, the party of Genocide Joe Biden. Biden could stop the war with one phone call. He refuses to take action, and so we must protest.”