The lawsuit, filed on May 2, 2024, in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division (Case ID: 1:24-cv-03563), is between plaintiffs Bodies Outside of Unjust Laws: Coalition for Reproductive Justice & LGBTQ+ Liberation, Andrew Thayer, Kristi Keorkunian, and Linda Loew and defendants City of Chicago, Tom Carney (Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Transportation), and Larry Snelling (Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department). The case revolves around the denial of parade permits to the plaintiffs during the Democratic National Convention in August 2024.
The plaintiffs argue that they were unjustly denied a permit to march during the convention. They claim that this denial was based on supposed traffic impacts and inadequate law enforcement resources. However, they assert that these reasons were more supposition than evidence-based. The city's alternative route offer was deemed unsatisfactory by the plaintiffs as it would make their protest virtually invisible to their intended audience.
Furthermore, they allege that denying parade permits may create more traffic problems and divert more police resources than granting them. In addition to permit denial, a new ordinance prohibiting an indeterminate list of objects within an undefined "security footprint" during the convention has been enacted by the city.
The plaintiffs are seeking declaratory and injunctive relief under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and the First and Fourteenth Amendments to challenge both their permit application denial and Chicago's ordinances governing parade permits and prohibited items within the security footprint.