Yesterday, 65 legal organizations, lawyers and legal workers signed onto an open letter to Chicago Police Superintendent Snelling and Mayor Johnson expressing their grave concerns about recent actions of the Chicago Police Department (CPD) and City of Chicago aimed at stopping protestors from demonstrating during the Democratic Convention. The lawyers also took issue with the way in which CPD has violently addressed protestors seeking a ceasefire and justice in Palestine over the past year.  The coalition of attorneys are calling on the CPD and City of Chicago to respect demonstrators First Amendment rights during the convention. This includes but is not limited to allowing protestors to march, providing orders to disperse and giving demonstrators ample opportunities to leave before making arrests as well as calling on the CPD to follow state law and their own policies to cite and release protestors, as opposed to arresting them.

The legal coalition expressed concern about: 1) CPD Superintendent Snelling’s comments that the CPD may arrest peaceful protestors and they took offense at his “gross mischaracterization” describing the 2020 summer protests in support of Black Lives as “rioting,” 2) revisions the CPD made to its mass arrest policy which they contend may further license officers to engage in excessive force with impunity; 3) Corporation Counsel’s efforts to punish pro-Palestinian demonstrators in pursuing convictions for misdemeanors for mere ordinance violations for obstructing traffic; and 4) CPD’s communication of contradictory information regarding where people will be jailed and how they can be located. 

The letter concludes by sharing, “we as a legal community are organized and prepared to ensure that protestors’ rights are honored and respected. If necessary, we will hold the CPD and other law enforcement agencies accountable should they eviscerate people’s constitutional rights.  Please do not force us to do so.”

Legal organizations that signed on include: ACLU of Illinois, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law’s Community Justice and Civil Rights Clinic, Children’s Best Interest Project, The Civil Rights & Police Accountability Project of the University of Chicago Law School, First Defense Legal Aid, Illinois Black Advocacy Initiative, Kaplan & Grady, Law for Black Lives, Loevy + Loevy, Movement Law Lab, Muslims for Just Futures, National Lawyers Guild: Chicago, National Lawyers Guild: Loyola, National Lawyers Guild: University Chicago Chapter, Palestine Legal and People’s Law Office.

In a letter sent to the University of Chicago, the Chicago chapter of the National Lawyers Guild and more than 150 lawyers, legal workers, law professors, law students, and organizations are calling on the University to drop all disciplinary actions being taken against its students who participated in protests against the genocide in Gaza, and to stop the sanctions it is seeking against the NLG Campus Chapter. 

The University of Chicago has been a historic site of student activism. Students have participated in demonstrations, occupied school buildings, and engaged in civil disobedience in support of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, and in advocacy for an end to the Vietnam War. The students are now demanding that the University disclose their investments and divest from all material support for the apartheid state of Israel. They are demanding an end to the genocide in Gaza and an end to Israeli apartheid. 

In response, the University’s administration has threatened students with suspensions and expulsions for participating in constitutionally protected free speech activities. The University also allowed its police force to violently clear the students’ encampment on May 7th. 

In its harsh stance against the students and their NLG Campus Chapter, the University has betrayed its highest principles of freedom of expression and places itself on the wrong side of history once again.

April 12-14th | Chicago, Illinois

Mark your calendar! The National Lawyers Guild Chicago chapter is thrilled to announce that we’ll be hosting the first NLG Midwest Regional Conference since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Join us for a weekend of community building and education (including CLE credited sessions!) from April 12-14th at Loyola University Chicago School of Law.

We welcome activists, organizers, lawyers, law students, legal observers, and other legal workers to join us as we plan to help organize on the ground responses for the upcoming Republican National Convention (Milwaukee, July 15-18) and Democratic National Convention (Chicago, August 19-22). We hope to use this conference to establish connections with one another and build power in movements that prioritize human rights over property rights. If you’re interested in hosting a panel, community discussion, or skillshare, you can submit a proposal here. 

Accessibility: In order to advocate for disability justice and accessibility for all, we are requesting that people wear a mask at the conference when not drinking or presenting. Loyola School of Law is ADA accessible. 

Admission: A limited number of early bird tickets will be available beginning January 24th; law student tickets will be available for $50 and general admission tickets will be available for $75. All tickets include breakfast, lunch, coffee and snacks for Saturday and Sunday. 

A limited number of registration fee waivers will be made available in early February for BIPOC and TUPOCC members and volunteers. Movement Builder and Movement Sustainer tickets will be available for $125 and $200, respectively, and will cover the cost of your admission and help pay for waivers for BIPOC and TUPOCC members and volunteers.

Housing: If you are in need of housing support or would like to open your home to fellow Guildees, you can request or offer housing using these forms:

• Request Housing
• Offer Housing

Schedule: The conference will kick off with a social event on Friday, April 12th (Location TBA). On Saturday (April 13th) and Sunday (April 14th), sessions will take place at Loyola University Chicago School of Law from 9am to 4pm. Another social event will be held on Saturday evening. (Location TBA).

REGISTER HERE TO GET YOUR EARLY BIRD TICKET!

On Saturday, November 18th, thousands of people gathered in Grant Park for a rally organized by Coalition for Justice in Palestine. After a group of demonstrators shut down DuSable Lake Shore Drive in an act of civil disobedience, Chicago Police brutally attacked attendees. 

NLG Chicago legal observers watched Chicago Police Officers violently shove and punch demonstrators. On two separate occasions, we observed elderly people being shoved to the ground, one hitting their head on the concrete. One of our Legal Observers—easily identified by their bright green hat—was shoved to the ground and then trampled by several officers while trying to document this police violence. We are calling on Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to condemn CPD’s excessive use of force and take action to ensure that Chicago Police do not use force to suppress the free speech of demonstrators at future protests.

CPD has long used violence to suppress speech, most infamously during the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago and during the 2020 uprisings following the police murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. CPD’s actions over the weekend are a continuation of this history of brutality and are part of a nationwide pattern of violent police repression against people and organizations opposing Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people. Likewise, Israeli police have aggressively targeted and arrested peace activists across Israel/Palestine criticizing the attacks on Gaza. 

Since October 7th, we have provided Legal Observers for 26 actions calling for an end to the genocide and tracked more than 175 arrests and citations. We also call on State’s Attorney Kimberly Foxx and Mayor Johnson to drop these charges and end the charging of activists involved in free speech activity.

Violent state repression against the fundamental right to protest has no place in Chicago, Washington DC, Jerusalem, Gaza, or anywhere else. NLG Chicago is proud to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian liberation movement in Chicago and across the world. 

REQUEST LEGAL OBSERVERS FOR YOUR PROTEST: chicago.lo.program@gmail.com
REQUEST A KNOW YOUR RIGHTS TRAINING FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION: nlg.chi.crimdefense@gmail.com

The National Lawyers Guild Chicago joins in solidarity with the members United Auto Workers across Chicago and the United States who are striking for fair wages and fair benefits, a 32-hour workweek, and a just transition to electric vehicle manufacturing. NLG Chicago denounces the corporate greed policies of the “Big Three” Automakers that prioritize profits over people and calls on the automakers to accede to worker demands. Over the past two weeks, UAW workers in Detroit and across the country have walked off the job and gone on strike. UAW President Shawn Fain announced a unique “stand-up strike” on September 14th, 2023, and since then, Ford, GM, and Stellantis (formerly Chrystler) workers in the Chicagoland area have set up their own picket lines, with UAW 551 members at the Ford Chicago Assembly going on strike on September 29th. . 

The constitutional right to strike and protest unfair and unsafe working conditions was forged in blood by anarchists and socialists in Chicago who died during and in the aftermath of the Haymarket Riots, and by autoworkers in Flint Michigan who shut down production at the height of the Great Depression. Black auto workers in Detroit organized the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM) and led walkouts to demand better pay and end racist discrimination in automotive jobs during the late 60’s. Beyond automotive manufacturing, the UAW has recently organized graduate student workers at Universities across the US as well as nonprofit legal aid attorneys and legal workers. The National Organization of Legal and Services Workers is UAW 2320. UAW members bargaining for fair contracts in higher education and legal and social services have been critical leaders in limiting the power of university campus police and protecting clients from police harassment and surveillance. 

The UAW autoworkers are demanding an end to concessionary contracts and tiers, and an increase in worker pay and benefits that reflects the historic profits that the Big Three automakers have won since the 2008 financial crisis. Workers are also demanding that jobs in electric vehicle and battery manufacturing be covered under UAW contracts. Big Three autoworkers across the Global South have shared solidarity messages in support of striking autoworkers–demonstrating the power in ending divide-and-conquer politics and rhetoric that have been a hallmark of the neo-liberal era. 

The fight of autoworkers is the same fight as attorneys and legal workers–to create a better world where all workers are paid a just wage, maintain a healthy work-life balance, as well as moving towards the end of fossil fuel dependency that doesn’t come at the expense of the working class and global poor. We encourage all NLG Chicago members and anyone who supports our mission that “human rights and the rights of the environment shall be held more sacred than property interests” take action to support UAW members and join the local picket lines: 

? FORD CHICAGO ASSEMBLY PLANT (LOCAL 551, REGION 4) 12600 S Torrence Ave, Chicago

? GM CHICAGO PARTS DIST (LOCAL 2114, REGION 4) 1355 Remington Blvd, Bolingbrook

? STELLANTIS CHICAGO (LOCAL 1178, REGION 4) 1980 High Grove Lane, Naperville 

In Solidarity, 

The NLG Chicago Board