Anti-Israel protesters have been pressuring the city of Chicago as they attempt to get permission to protest outside of the Democratic National Convention in August.
The protesters have filed a grouping of lawsuits in recent months, namely from the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, the Anti-War Coalition, and Students for a Democratic Society at the University of Illinois. They have alleged that their First Amendment rights are being violated by Chicago’s government as they have allegedly been denied permission to protest several times.
On Tuesday, the protesters filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, saying that they want to “engage in peaceful political speech and seek to exercise their First Amendment rights at the Convention to deliver their political messages directly to… President Biden.”
The filing alleges that the effort to address Biden directly has been shut down by the City of Chicago, which has denied the groups’ “respective applications for parade permits within sight or sound of the Convention.”
“Instead, the City, on information at the behest of the DNC, unilaterally decided to offer an alternative parade route approximately four (4) miles away buried on a tree lined street in an entirely other part of the City, clearly to protect President Biden and others from hearing the Plaintiffs’ political message,” the coalition stated in the filing. “In doing so, the City failed to consider to least restrictive route narrowly tailored to meet a compelling government interest. Indeed, the City admitted it considered no other alternative than the one it seeks to force on Plaintiffs and failed to engage Plaintiffs to consider less restrictive options.”
The groups also claimed that Chicago is “working with the DNC” and attempting “to limit the number of peaceful parades organized to deliver political speech by denying permit applications solely on the grounds that such applications are ‘duplicative.’”
“This provision violated the First Amendment on its face as it is vague and overly broad and has been interpreted by the Defendants to allow … not only [denying] permit applications but even seek criminal and civil penalties against any organization and its members applying for a parade permit on more than one date or against two or more organizations with even a single member in common which seek parade permits,” the filing added.
“The public interest weighs in favor of granting preliminary injunctive relief. The U.S. Supreme Court has long recognized that the government does not have a free hand to regulate private speech on government property… that members of the public retain strong free speech rights when they venture into public streets and parks, which ‘have immemorially been held in trust for the use of the public and, time out of mind, have been used for purposes of assembly, communicating thoughts between citizens, and discussing public questions,'” the filing wrote, adding its request that the judge grant them better access to the event.
Notably, several Democrats have expressed concern that potential unrest could disrupt the convention, and show disunity amongst the party.
“Peaceful protest is fundamental to American democracy, and has been a fixture of political conventions for decades,” said spokesperson Matt Hill in an interview with the Washington Post. “While Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans stoke political violence, we support the ongoing security coordination at all levels of government to keep our convention safe.”
“We’ll be marching with or without permits, said executive director of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network Htem Abudayyeh last month. “This DNC is the most important one since 1968, also in Chicago when Vietnam War protesters and the black liberation movement organized mass demonstrations that were violently repressed.”
“The march on the DNC will be the largest mobilization for Palestine in the history of the city,” he added.
The 2024 convention is set to be held from August 19-22, and will be where the party officially announces its nominee for the 2024 presidential election. It is widely expected that president Joe Biden will face off against former President Donald Trump in a rematch of 2020.
