A New Initiative, Decades of Success

With over two decades of bringing high-impact, complex, civil rights and First Amendment litigation, our attorneys have been at the forefront defending the rights of movements for racial, climate, and social justice.

 

Our Mission

Working at the unique intersection of First and Fourth Amendment law, we have successfully created and imposed extensive changes in laws and policies, restricted and dismantled abusive police tactics, opened up public spaces for free speech and assembly, and obtained major awards for persons whose rights have been violated. We have defended demonstrators who were arrested and prosecuted for protest activity or because of their political views, obtaining exonerations and dropped charges, and painstakingly investigated and exposed police agents provocateur and surveillance operations. Litigating across the U.S., we work directly on the ground with oppressed communities and frontline activists and have represented 1000s of persons falsely arrested and brutalized as well as defended targeted social justice groups and organizations.

“The Constitutional Sheriffs for a new protest generation”
~ The Washington Post

The experience and work brought to the Center for Protest Law and Litigation:

  • Successful Class Action Litigation Against Federal and Local Police on Behalf of Activists. Our attorneys have secured injunctive relief and the largest monetary awards in U.S. history for protester class actions. With a focus on imposing rules or court orders to ban illegal police tactics and prevent recurrence, establishing personal accountability, and full compensation for for persons whose rights have been violated, the class action work includes representation of thousands across the country. Federal judges have called this work “historic” and a “benefit for future generations.”

  • Jane Fonda and Fire Drill Fridays for Climate Justice. Legal representation and criminal defense for Jane Fonda and Fire Drill Friday activists during their multi-month Washington, DC actions for climate justice.

  • Protecting Protest at the Presidential Inaugural Parade. Secured a Federal Court permanent injunction against the Federal Government for unconstitutionally denying access to the parade by protesters, which resulted in an historic expansion of access for protesters and the public that will last far into the future.

  • Forcing Government Disclosure of Anti-Protester Surveillance Through FOIA Litigation. Forced the disclosure of thousands of government documents about secret and illegal surveillance programs revealing the U.S. government’s use of anti-terrorism agencies and funding against peaceful political protest in America. 

  • Challenging Police Infiltration, Agents Provocateur, and Disruption of Protest Groups. Our litigation revealed that the Washington, D.C. police department maintained a domestic spying operation in which police officers were sent on long-term undercover infiltration assignments posing as members of protest groups to report on and, apparently, disrupt political activities, even in the absence of allegations of criminal activity. Consequently, these officers’ activities were terminated.

  • Secured Significant Monetary Damage Awards for Activists Beaten or Brutalized by Police. Our successful cases include pursuing justice for protesters beaten in the face with clubs by officers whose identifying tags were removed, activists pepper sprayed and struck by unidentified law enforcement officers in plain clothes, peaceful activists pepper sprayed by the NYPD, an activist who was beaten with a baton by an unidentified officer in plain clothes because the activist had taken photos of other police brutality, an activist held down on the ground and clubbed in the head by police, hundreds of activists falsely arrested and hog-tied for 24+ hours, among others.

  • Standing Rock. Part of the Water Protector Legal Collective civil team in federal civil rights litigation challenging mass violations of constitutional rights and brutal force by law enforcement.

  • Defeated Trump’s Anti-Protest Plans. Led a coalition that submitted over 140,000 comments forcing Trump to completely withdraw proposed regulations that would have eviscerated the ability to protest in the Nation’s Capitol including on the National Mall, the Lincoln Memorial, Lafayette Park and many other central and iconic locations. This work was coupled with a robust legal case our attorneys built to immediately enjoin the regulations.

  • Model Restrictions to Stop Federal Police Violation of Protester Rights. In a class action against the U.S. Park Police, imposed new police orders and policies that restrict interventions against protesters - including at Lafayette Park. The presiding Federal Judge approvingly called the changes “a model for local jurisdictions across the country.”

  • Model Legislative Changes to Protect Protester Rights. Catalyzed and informed groundbreaking omnibus legislation adopted by the District of Columbia to restrict police conduct and to enhance the rights of protesters to access the streets, sidewalks and parks in Washington D.C. This legislation is serving as a model for jurisdictions nationwide.

  • Protecting Activists Targeted for FBI Interrogation and MPD Arrest Based on Political Profiling. Secured damages against the District of Columbia for targeting 13 activists dressed in black and perceived as anarchists for arrest without probable cause and then handed over to the FBI for interrogation about their political activities and associations. Also obtained sanctions against the government after exposing the withholding of evidence.

  • Striking Down Philadelphia’s Unconstitutional Curfew and Permitting Regulations. Enjoined the City of Philadelphia’s curfew law in the context of free speech activities and enjoined the City’s unconstitutional protest permitting system.

  • Holding Police Personally Accountable at the Highest Ranks. We secured a landmark ruling holding that D.C. MPD Assistant Police Chief Peter Newsham - now Chief of Police - lost qualified immunity and was personally liable for the mass false arrest of hundreds and that then-Chief of Police Charles Ramsey could also be held liable.

  • Keeping Green Spaces and Parks Open to Protest and Political Assembly. We successfully challenged New York City’s efforts to discriminatorily restrict mass assembly on the Great Lawn of Central Park in connection with the Republican National Convention.