Judge rules disputed protest route will stay in place during Chicago's DNC

CHICAGO (CBS) — A judge will not require the City of Chicago to change the protest route offered to protesters during the Democratic National Convention, despite protesters requesting a route closer to the United Center.

There has been an ongoing battle over permits to protest. However, on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood ruled the current route satisfies the First Amendment. 

The Coalition to March on the DNC sued the city for violating its First Amendment right to protest. The protest groups filed for permits to demonstrate back in 2023.

The city had agreed that protesters should be "within sight and sound" of the United Center. City Hall has offered a route that would begin around Union Park, and will head south on Ashland Avenue, west on Washington Boulevard, north on Hermitage Avenue, west on Maypole Avenue to Park 578 where many speeches are expected—and then to Damen Avenue, north to Lake Street, and east back to Union Park where more speeches are planned.

But protesters said the city's proposed route is too winding and too short. 

"If we make two quick turns here with tens of thousands of people, that's a guaranteed log jam," said Hatem Abudayyeh, Chair of the U.S.-Palestinian Community Network.

Abudayyeh also emphasized all the different groups that want to be heard, suggesting the city does not want this to happen.

"They don't want hours and hours of marches, and hours and hours of protests, and hours and hours of programming in which one person after another—from the Black community, from the immigrant rights community, from the women's community, workers, and labor unionists, and reproductive rights activists, and all of these people standing up on a stage in the middle of Union Park—blocks away from the United Center," he said.

Residents near the United Center are also preparing for the convention, and the protests.

"I knew the DNC was starting Monday, but wasn't aware of the protest, actually," said Aaron Smith, who lives along the protest route.

But now, signs have been going up reading, "March on the DNC 2024"—and calling for an end to U.S. aid to Israel and other agenda items.

"That's a lot of people in a small area," Smith said of the planned route and expected turnout.

There are already no-parking signs in place along the city-approved protest route.

"Just trying to figure out where I'm going to park my car, and getting to and from work," Smith said.

Meanwhile, protesters say they recognize the city met the legal burden of satisfying the First Amendment with its approved protest. But the protesters still plan to appeal Judge Wood's decision. 

They continue to argue their route should be longer—around 2 miles—because up to 25,000 people could attend the protest that focuses on the War in Gaza.

The city said it would be safer to stick to its approved route—so that emergency vehicles can get by, and because barriers are going up. Workers have started installing the heavy iron fences to build the security perimeter outside the United Center and McCormick Place.  

"We are not giving up. We are going to appeal, and so we're hopeful that—obviously, we're only six days away," Abudayyheh said. "There's going to have to be an emergency hearing, or an immediate response from the circuit court on this question."

Judge Wood said as far as she is concerned, the route decision has been finished. But Wood plans another status hearing on the phone with both the city and protest groups, to talk about the final approval process for speaking and for the schedule of who can protest where and when.

The permits for the protests still have not been approved, but the city says that is supposed to happen on Wednesday.

"If they reject that permit after all of this work that we've done—and after having applied for it from eight, nine months ago—then that's going to be a major political problem that we're going to have to take up in some other forum," Abudayyeh said. "Like, you know, we're going to have to put the political pressure on the city, and we might have to escalate that pressure."

On Monday, Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling addressed DNC safety concerns. He vowed police would get ahead of any potential violence.

"We will not allow people to come here and destroy this city," Snelling said.

Snelling also wanted people to know that the words "riots" and "protests" should not be used interchangeably.

"We're not going to allow you to riot. Protesting and rioting are two different things," Snelling said. "The moment that starts, we are going to intervene. I am not going to wait until out of control and then try to bring it back in."