March 19, 2011
Protesters opposed to the war in Iraq marched along Michigan Avenue on Saturday, marking the eighth anniversary of the war’s start and celebrating the revival of their lawsuit against the city of Chicago.
A federal appeals court on Thursday reversed U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall's decision to throw out a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of about 900 anti-war protesters arrested at a 2003 march, ordering the case back into court.
The demonstrators on March 20, 2003, did not have a permit because organizers waited until the Iraq War began to hold the march. About 900 people wound up getting arrested and held for up to 36 hours. Charges against them were later dropped.
Melinda Power, one of the attorneys in the case, said she hopes the ruling encourages incoming Mayor Rahm Emanuel to settle the case.
“I would hope Mayor Emanuel would like to put this behind him and show that First Amendment rights and Fourth Amendment rights are going to be respected in Chicago,” Power said.
The demonstrators on March 20, 2003, did not have a permit because the organizers waited until the Iraq War began to hold the march, and although they informed police that they would be holding a march, they did not give police a planned route or a date in advance. The demonstrations started at the Federal Plaza on South Dearborn and wound their way north through downtown and onto Lake Shore Drive, ending at Chicago and Michigan Avenue with demonstrators penned in between two lines of police officers.
About 900 people were then arrested and held for up to 36 hours. Charges against them were later dropped.
Today, some of those involved in the 2003 demonstrations are holding a march that started at noon, marking the anniversary of the war's start and retracing part of their 2003 route to Chicago Avenue, starting at Michigan Avenue and Congress Parkway.
The decision Thursday, written by federal court Judge Richard Posner, harshly criticized the arrests, characterizing the city's procedures for granting parade permits as "idiocy" and criticizing Kendall because "the Fourth Amendment does not permit the police to say to a person go ahead and march and then, five minutes later, having revoked the permission for the march without notice to anyone, arrest the person for having marched without police permission."
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